How ’bout a little Christmas news to break the monotony of politics? Now how about some Christmas news that involves a dead Santa Claus and the location of his burial? I knew you’d be excited.

Actually, we’re talking about the burial location of St. Nicholas of Myra, the saint whose generosity inspired the legend of Father Christmas or, as he’s known here in the United States, Santa Claus. St. Nicholas would leave anonymous gifts for the poor, leading to him being canonized shortly after his death.

Apparently he’s buried in Ireland.

The bishop was buried in the cathedral church in Myra, which became a pilgrimage site, but Irish historians claim the early crusaders brought his remains back to Jerpoint Abbey.

Philip Lynch, an historian and chairman of Callan Heritage Society in Co Kilkenny, said: “It is an amazing story and yet very few people in Ireland know about St Nicholas’s connection with this country.

St. Nicholas was actually born into wealth, but his parents died when he was young. He was inspired by Jesus’ teachings and decided to spend all of his inheritance helping the sick and needy. In fact, the modern tradition of filling stockings was inspired by one such example of his generosity.

One story tells of a poor peasant with three daughters, who could not afford the dowry to ensure they married and were saved from a life of slavery.

As he began to despair, on three separate nights as they came of age, bags of gold appeared in his home, seemingly tossed through a window or down the chimney as they slept, landing in shoes left by the fire.

But back to his burial.

It has previously been held that St Nicholas’s remains were taken to Bari in southern Italy in the 11th century after his grave was looted by Italian sailors.

However, Mr Lynch claims there is evidence to suggest that a French family who settled in Ireland shortly after 1169 were responsible for moving his remains.

He believes that the crusading family, called the de Frainets, exhumed the tomb after they were routed by their enemies, and brought the content to southern Italy, which was then Norman lands.

When they were subsequently forced out of Italy by the Genoese, the remains were entrusted to relatives in Nice, who moved them to family lands in Kilkenny for safe keeping.

Nicholas de Frainet built a dedicated Cistercian Abbey at Jerpoint where St Nicholas’s remains were then interred in 1200.

“St Nicholas Church is still standing and there is a slab on the ground which marks St Nicholas’s grave,” said Mr Lynch.

Interesting stuff.