Whereas the devotional importance of relics and the economics associated with pilgrimages caused the remains of most saints to be divided up and spread over numerous churches in several countries, Saint Nicholas is unusual in that most of his bones have been preserved in one spot: his grave crypt in Bari.
Even with the allegedly continuing miracle of the manna, the archdiocese of Bari has allowed for one scientific survey of the bones.
In the late 1950s, while the crypt was undergoing much-needed restoration, the bones were removed from it for the first time since their interment in 1089.
A special Pontiffical Commission permitted Luigi Martino, a professor of human anatomy at the University of Bari, to examine the bones under the Commission's supervision.
Martino took thousands of measurements, detailed scientific drawings, photographs, and x-rays.
These examinations revealed the saint to have died at over seventy years of age and to have been of average height and slender-to-average build.
He also suffered from severe chronic arthritis in his spine and pelvis.

In 2004, at the University of Manchester, researchers Caroline Wilkinson and Fraco Introna reconstructed the saint's face based on Martino's examination.
The review of the data revealed that the historical Saint Nicholas was 5'6" in height and had a broken nose, which had partially healed, revealing that the injury had been suffered ante mortem.
The broken nose appeared to conform with hagiographical reports that Saint Nicholas had been beaten and tortured during the Diocletianic Persecution.
The facial reconstruction was produced by Dr. Caroline Wilkinson at the University of Manchester and was shown on a BBC2 TV program The Real Face of Santa.
In 2014, the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University produced an updated reconstruction of Saint Nicholas's face.

In 2017, two researchers from Oxford University, Professor Tom Higham and Doctor Georges Kazan, radiocarbon dated a fragment of a pelvis claimed to belong to Saint Nicholas.
The fragment originally came from a church in Lyons, France and, at the time of testing, was in the possession of Father Dennis O'Neill, a priest from St Martha of Bethany Church in Illinois.
The results of the radiocarbon dating confirmed that the pelvis dates to the fourth century AD, around the same time that Saint Nicholas would have died, and is not a medieval forgery.
The bone was one of the oldest the Oxford team had ever examined.
According to Professor Higham, most of the relics the team has examined turn out to be too recent to have actually belonged to the saint to whom they are attributed, but he states, "This bone fragment, in contrast, suggests that we could possibly be looking at remains from St Nicholas himself."
Doctor Kazan believes the pelvis fragment may come from the same individual as the skeleton divided between the churches in Bari and Venice, since the bone they tested comes from the left pubis, and the only pelvis bone in the collection at Bari is the left ilium.
In the absence of DNA testing, however, it is not yet possible to know for certain whether the pelvis is from the same man.
Whereas the devotional importance of relics and the economics associated with pilgrimages caused the remains of most saints to be divided up and spread over numerous churches in several countries, Saint Nicholas is unusual in that most of his bones have been preserved in one spot: his grave crypt in Bari. Even with the allegedly continuing miracle of the manna, the archdiocese of Bari has allowed for one scientific survey of the bones. In the late 1950s, while the crypt was undergoing much-needed restoration, the bones were removed from it for the first time since their interment in 1089. A special Pontiffical Commission permitted Luigi Martino, a professor of human anatomy at the University of Bari, to examine the bones under the Commission's supervision. Martino took thousands of measurements, detailed scientific drawings, photographs, and x-rays. These examinations revealed the saint to have died at over seventy years of age and to have been of average height and slender-to-average build. He also suffered from severe chronic arthritis in his spine and pelvis.
In 2004, at the University of Manchester, researchers Caroline Wilkinson and Fraco Introna reconstructed the saint's face based on Martino's examination. The review of the data revealed that the historical Saint Nicholas was 5'6" in height and had a broken nose, which had partially healed, revealing that the injury had been suffered ante mortem. The broken nose appeared to conform with hagiographical reports that Saint Nicholas had been beaten and tortured during the Diocletianic Persecution. The facial reconstruction was produced by Dr. Caroline Wilkinson at the University of Manchester and was shown on a BBC2 TV program The Real Face of Santa. In 2014, the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University produced an updated reconstruction of Saint Nicholas's face.
In 2017, two researchers from Oxford University, Professor Tom Higham and Doctor Georges Kazan, radiocarbon dated a fragment of a pelvis claimed to belong to Saint Nicholas. The fragment originally came from a church in Lyons, France and, at the time of testing, was in the possession of Father Dennis O'Neill, a priest from St Martha of Bethany Church in Illinois. The results of the radiocarbon dating confirmed that the pelvis dates to the fourth century AD, around the same time that Saint Nicholas would have died, and is not a medieval forgery. The bone was one of the oldest the Oxford team had ever examined. According to Professor Higham, most of the relics the team has examined turn out to be too recent to have actually belonged to the saint to whom they are attributed, but he states, "This bone fragment, in contrast, suggests that we could possibly be looking at remains from St Nicholas himself." Doctor Kazan believes the pelvis fragment may come from the same individual as the skeleton divided between the churches in Bari and Venice, since the bone they tested comes from the left pubis, and the only pelvis bone in the collection at Bari is the left ilium. In the absence of DNA testing, however, it is not yet possible to know for certain whether the pelvis is from the same man.
Saint Nicholas