Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! How Saint Nicholas was transmogrified into Santa Claus, I’ll never know. “Jolly Old Saint Nick” was by all accounts a thin man, most famous for giving gifts to prostitutes and punching heretics.

That whole “eight tiny reindeer” thing seems like a bit of a come down.

Wait, prostitutes?

Well, almost. That was their father’s plan, since he lacked the money for dowries. Here’s what the Golden Legend has to say:

And it was so that one, his neighbour, had then three daughters, virgins, and he was a nobleman: but for the poverty of them together, they were constrained, and in very purpose to abandon them to the sin of lechery, so that by the gain and winning of their infamy they might be sustained.

And when the holy man Nicholas knew hereof he had great horror of this villainy, and threw by night secretly into the house of the man a mass of gold wrapped in a cloth. And when the man arose in the morning, he found this mass of gold, and rendered to God therefor great thankings, and therewith he married off his oldest daughter.

And a little while after this holy servant of God threw in another mass of gold, which the man found, and thanked God, and purposed to wake, for to know him that so had aided him in his poverty. And after a few days Nicholas doubled the mass of gold, and cast it into the house of this man.

He awoke by the sound of the gold, and followed Nicholas, which fled from him, and he said to him: Sir, flee not away so but that I may see and know thee. Then he ran after him more hastily, and knew that it was Nicholas; and anon he kneeled down, and would have kissed his feet, but the holy man would not, but required him not to tell nor discover this thing as long as he lived.

There are all sorts of miracles attributed to Saint Nicholas, including relief of a famine, and of bringing back from the dead three boys who had been butchered for use in a meat pie.

Even his bones are miraculous. Most of the Saint’s bones are entombed in Bari in southeastern Italy, where they were brought in 1087 to get them away from the Turkish invasion of Anatolia.

It is said that in Myra the relics of Saint Nicholas each year exuded a clear watery liquid which smells like rose water, called manna (or myrrh), which is believed by the faithful to possess miraculous powers. After the relics were brought to Bari, they continued to do so, much to the joy of the new owners. Vials of myrrh from his relics have been taken all over the world for centuries, and can still be obtained from his church in Bari.

Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on 6 December (the Saint’s feast day) by the clergy of the basilica. The myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus which is located in the basilica vault and could be obtained in the shop nearby. The liquid gradually seeps out of the tomb, but it is unclear whether it originates from the body within the tomb, or from the marble itself…

(Source)

Perhaps my favourite story of the saint, however, are his actions at the Council of Nicea, where he reportedly slapped the heretic Arius in the face.

Some would deplore the Saint’s inability to keep his temper; I laud him for his zeal.

Since it was a crime to strike another person in the presence of the Emperor (who happened to be in the room), Nicholas was stripped of his episcopal vestments, clapped in irons, and thrown in a cell.

The next day, his jailors discovered him fully vested, unchained, and reading scripture. When told of this, the Emperor restored him to the Council, and the Council restored him to his rank and seat.

Arius was condemned as a heretic.

The slap is so famous, that there are several depictions of the incident in art of the period.

This image is actually part of a larger fresco depicting the Council, painted at the Sümela Monastery, which was founded in 386.

Sadly, Saint Nicholas was unable to slap any sense into Arius.

We humbly implore your mercy, Lord:
protect us in all dangers through the prayers of the Bishop Saint Nicholas,
that the way of salvation may lie open before us.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.