This coming Saturday, Dec 6 is the feast day of St. Nicholas. This is the true story of Santa Claus. I personally have no problem with Santa Claus, but I will say that once we hear the actual, true history of this remarkable man, the secular legend seems boring in comparison.

St. Nick was born in the 3 ^rd century in a town on the southern coast of Turkey. His parents died while he was still young, and Nick gave away his entire inheritance to the poor and he entered the Church. He became a Bishop and was known for his continued love for the poor and for children. At the time of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, many Christians were imprisoned for their faith, St. Nick was among them. After a time the persecution relented because they needed the prison space for actual criminals.

Once the Church was free again, a few theological issues needed to be settled, so a great council was called in the city of Nicaea. It was the year 325 and this council was to be the most famous in the history of the Church. At the time there was a theologian named Arius who taught that Jesus was a god but not the God. He had many followers and the Church was in danger of actually splitting in half over the issue. At Nicaea, the bishops with great courage defended the divinity of Christ. It took courage because the Roman emperor actually agreed with Arius and many bishops were persecuted after the council. As a result of their heroic defense of the faith, the Nicene Creed was written. It directly refutes Arius and declares that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father, with the same essence, meaning fully God. Nicholas was one of the bishops who supported the writing of the creed and at one point he became so frustrated with Arius that he followed him into the bathroom and punched him. Now, this is not particularly commendable and he did get in trouble and repent, but I share it because it is nice to know that even Santa Claus lost his temper sometimes! Santa Claus only did what he did because he loves the Catholic Church. There are many other fascinating events from his life.

The most famous story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days the father had to offer a prospective husband something of value—a dowry. The larger it was the better. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters had nothing and were almost certainly going to be poor unwed house servants or even slaves. This is when St. Nick heard of it, climbed up on their roof and tossed 3 bags of gold down the chimney. The bags landed in shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings on the mantle or putting out shoes so that St. Nick would fill them. At our art museum here there is a painting with St. Nicholas in it and he is holding 3 gold balls, the story is sometimes told this way instead of with coins. You can always recognize him in artwork by this symbol.

I’ll tell one more story, this one taking place after his death. The people of Myra, where he had been bishop, were celebrating his feast day when a band of pirates attacked and stole from the Church. They also kidnapped a young boy to use as a slave. The pirates sold the boy, Basilios, to a king, where he became a cupbearer. This was his condition for a year. As the next feast of St. Nicholas approached, his mother still grieved and would not celebrate, instead she prayed to St. Nicholas to take care of her lost son. At this very moment, the boy was miraculously transported into the arms of Nicholas, who blessed the boy and set him down at home in front of his astonished mother. Basilios still had the kings golden cup in his hands!

From stories such as these, we see that this gentle, courageous man has a great desire to protect children. It makes sense that the feast of the Nativity during which the Christ child is born would come to be associated with his patronage. If we teach our children about him, and help them to see the true gift that is God’s love for us, then we have truly understood the Christmas miracle.