St. Nick: The Real Face of Santa

For the first time in 1,700 years, the real face of Santa Claus has been revealed.

Santa Claus is the world’s most recognised figure — yet the real man behind the legend has remained a mystery for seventeen centuries. This Discovery Channel special changes that, applying cutting-edge forensic science to the bones of St Nicholas himself to reconstruct his face for the first time since his death in 340 AD.

Led by FBI-trained Italian pathologist Professor Francesco Introna — a man who ordinarily investigates Mafia killings and examines saints’ relics for the Vatican — the investigation takes the team from the ruins of third-century Turkey to a forensic laboratory in Manchester, where pioneering 3D mapping software builds a portrait of the saint muscle by muscle, sinew by sinew. What emerges holds surprises. St Nicholas was no gentle bishop — he was broad-jawed, thickset, and sporting a badly broken nose more at home on a boxer’s face than a saint’s.

But the forensic reconstruction is only part of the story. The film also unravels a scandalous history of violence, greed, and fakery surrounding the saint’s remains — from a brazen medieval raid by mercenaries to steal his body, to the Vatican’s controversial role in the slow destruction of what survives. Using CGI, dramatic historical recreations filmed on location, and contributions from the world’s leading academic experts, the film peels back the centuries to resurrect the man who inspired the world’s most enduring legend.