“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God’s giving. by grace. through faith, and this is not of ourselves.” St. Nicholas of Myra, patron saint of children, sailors and merchants.
St Nicholas is a revered Christian saint who is celebrated for his piety, generosity, and numerous miracles. Little is known about the historical Saint Nicholas. The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and probably contain legendary elaborations. He is said to have been born round 270 AD in Patara Lycia, on the southern coast of what is now modern-day Turkey. Tradition tells us that he died on December 6, 343, in Myra, and was buried in his cathedral church.
He was born to wealthy Christian parents, who tragically died from an epidemic when he was a young man, leaving him with a significant inheritance. Obeying Jesus’ words to “sell what you have and give the money to the poor”, Nicholas used all of his inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God, and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man.
In one of the earliest attested and most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls from being forced into prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house each night for three nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them. On the third night, he was caught by the girls’ father, who had stayed awake all night for this very purpose. Nicholas implored him not to tell anyone about the gifts. Other early stories tell of him calming a storm at sea, saving three innocent soldiers from wrongful execution, and chopping down a tree possessed by a demon. A number of other miracles are attributed to him.
Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. He was said to have attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 after his release from prison, but he is never mentioned in any writings by people who were at the council, so the historical accuracy of his presence there is in dispute. Unsubstantiated legends claim that he was temporarily defrocked and imprisoned during the council for slapping the heretic Arius, for questioning the divinity of Christ. This interested me because when we visited Turkey in 2008, we actually stopped at Nicaea, which today is the modern town of Iznik, about 90 km southwest of Istanbul. Part of its ancient fourth century walls still stand. But I digress…
Up until the Reformation children traditionally received gifts on St Nicholas’s Day. This tradition began to meet with opposition during the Reformation, because one of the chief objections of the reformers to the practices of the church at that time was the veneration of the saints and the long list of “saints’ days” in the church calendar. As the Reformation took hold over large swathes of Europe, prohibitions on holding traditional St Nicholas Day processions were formally issued in areas under Reformed control. But while the two other main Reformers, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, remained rigid in their rejection of Saints’ Feast Days, Martin Luther’s attitude was less restrictive.
He had a very soft place in his heart for children, and did not want them to be deprived of their gifts on the Feast of St. Nicholas, which was now cancelled. In Germany, he introduced the “Christkind” (Child Jesus) as the gift-giver, to shift focus from saint veneration to Jesus, moving gift-giving from December 6th (St. Nicholas Day) to Christmas Eve/Day, though the Dutch/Belgian tradition of Sinterklaas persisted, evolving into modern Santa. Luther wanted to emphasize Christ as the ultimate giver, not saints. But the custom of Saint Nicholas placing presents in boots on the eve of December 6 did not die out — after all, gift-giving can be traced back to the story of the three girls and the lumps of gold.
Nowadays, Saint Nicholas Day is still the main gift-giving day in some countries — like Belgium and the Netherlands, where the “Sinterklaasfest” is celebrated. Although Santa Claus is derived from the Catholic ‘Saint Nicholas’, the Reformer Martin Luther did not want the gift-giving tradition to stop. Luther’s humanity, his desire not to deprive children of their gifts, has contributed to making Christmas the most popular feast in much of the Western Hemisphere. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)