Saint Nicholas: The Christmas Father

By Fr. Hedwig Lewis SJ –

Santa Claus, disguised with a flowing robe and facial mask is the symbol of the anonymous “giver” – for whom the giving becomes more important than the giver. Though Santa Claus is used as a commercial ploy today, he is often a welcome visitor in many a slum and village during Christmas Week for the gifts he bears. The inspiration for such giving comes from the original Santa Claus: St Nicholas.

Saint Nicholas

Nicholas was born around 280 A.D. at Patara, Lycia, a province of southern Asia Minor, which today forms a part of Turkey. Nicholas was ordained a priest at an early age and appointed abbot of a monastery. When the See of Myra, the capital of Lycia, became vacant, Nicholas was made its bishop and later rose to become an Archbishop. He was a strong defender of the Faith against Arianism. He was imprisoned and tortured during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. He was released from prison when Contantine came to the throne. Bishop Nicholas was renowned in his day, for his charity to and defence of the poor.

There is a popular story extolling his generosity. In his diocese lived a poor Pawnbroker who had three daughters of marriageable age. Unable to provide dowries for them, the father had no choice but to turn them into prostitutes. Bishop Nicholas, who was aware of their sad plight decided to help them out secretly.

It is said that Nicholas crept up to the open window of the sleeping father’s room at night and threw in a bag of gold. The father believed this was a godsend and with it he dowered his eldest daughter. Overjoyed with his success, Nicholas made like venture for the second daughter. But the third time, as he stole away, the father who was watching, overtook him, kissed his feet, and sought repentance.

St Nicholas died around the year 342 and buried at Myra. He was greatly venerated by the people of Asia Minor. In 540 Emperor Justinian built a church in honour of St Nicholas at Constantinople. The image of St Nicholas is the one more often found on Byzantine seals than any other. In the beginning of the 16th century in England alone about four thousand churches were dedicated to him.

Tradition

As the centuries rolled by, Myra fell to the Turks (in 1087), and Italian sailors are said to have taken his relics to Bari, Italy, and enshrined there by Pope Urban II. There the saint was venerated and his feast day celebrated year after year. Then the Crusaders who went to Turkey brought stories about the saint back to Austria, Holland and Germany.

Gradually, St Nicholas was revived in other parts of the world, under various names. He became Father Christmas in England, Julomten in Sweden, Joulupukki in Finland, Bonhomme Noel in France, and even Lang Khoong (“Good Old Father”) in Mainland China.

In the Middle Ages, devotion to St Nicholas spread all across Europe. He was honoured as patron of charitable fraternities and guilds, of children, sailors, pawnbrokers, and unmarried women. With the onset of the Reformation, his cult was abolished in all the Protestant countries except Holland where his legend persisted as Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of his name). The Dutch colonists carried the legend to New Amsterdam (which was later named New York).

Evolution

In 1804, the New York Historical Society was founded with Nicholas as its patron saint, reviving the Dutch tradition of St Nicholas as a bringer of gifts. In 1809, Washington Irving published his satirical A History of New York, by one “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” poking fun at New York’s Dutch past, St Nicholas included. Irving revised his History of New York in 1812, adding details about Nicholas’ “riding over the tops of the trees, in that selfsame wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children.” In 1821, William Gilley wrote a poem about a “Santeclaus” who dressed all in fur and drove a sleigh pulled by one reindeer.

Santa Claus

On Christmas Eve of 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, wrote down and read to his children a series of verses; his poem was published a year later as “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” …more commonly known today by its opening line, “’Twas the night before Christmas . . .” Clement Moore’s poem completed the metamorphosis of St Nicholas into Santa Claus. Besides giving the poor bishop of a poverty-stricken diocese a potbellied appearance, giving him a sleigh with eight reindeer to travel when in actual life he may never have seen snow, even for once. The poem made him literally a superman. It did not take much for the rest of fiction writers to add more trappings to him.

The modern image of Santa Claus was created by Coca-Cola (Haddon Sundblom drew his first Santa portrait for Coca-Cola in 1931) which popularised the existing image of Claus.


Fr Hedwig Lewis SJ is the author of “Christmas by Candlelight”. Published by <[email protected]>

 

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