Happy Santa Claus Day

Saint Nicholas – Nikolaos the Wonderworker

A third-century bishop who was known as a miracle worker and a giver of secret gifts. 

Born: 270 – Died: 6 December 343

He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him.  Not only is he recognized by the Catholic Church, holidays honoring St. Nicholas' works of charity are celebrated by more than forty countries.

St. Nicholas was born in Greece and became a fourth-century bishop of Myra, in southern Turkey when that area was under Greek influence.

One legend  tells how a terrible famine struck the small Turkish island of Gemile  and a malicious butcher lured three little children into his house, where he slaughtered and butchered them, placing their remains in a barrel to cure, planning to sell them off as ham. Saint Nicholas, visiting the region to care for the hungry, not only saw through the butcher's horrific crime but also resurrected the three boys from the barrel by his prayers. Another version of this story, possibly formed around the eleventh century, claims that the butcher's victims were instead three clerks who wished to stay the night. The man murdered them, and was advised by his wife to dispose of them by turning them into meat pies. The Saint saw through this and brought the men back to life.

Perhaps the best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters of marriageable age. Rather than see them forced into prostitution, Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man’s window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on the saint’s feast.

Today, Saint Nicholas is still celebrated as a great gift-giver in several Western European countries. According to one source, in medieval times nuns used the night of 6 December to deposit baskets of food and clothes anonymously at the doorsteps of the needy. According to another source, on 6 December every sailor or ex-sailor of the Low Countries (which at that time was virtually all of the male population) would descend to the harbor towns to participate in a church celebration for their patron saint. On the way back they would stop at one of the various Nicholas fairs to buy some hard-to-come-by goods, gifts for their loved ones and invariably some little presents for their children. While the real gifts would only be presented at Christmas, the little presents for the children were given right away, courtesy of Saint Nicholas.

Our American Santa Claus custom descended from a secularized St. Nicholas tradition. The name Santa Claus actually comes from the German Sankt Nikolaus, a tradition brought here by German immigrants.  In the English-speaking countries, St. Nicholas became, by a twist of the tongue, Santa Claus—further expanding the example of generosity portrayed by this holy bishop.

In 1087, about half of his bones were furtively moved to Bari in southeastern Italy; for this reason, he is also known as Nikolaos of Bari. The remaining bones were taken to Venice in 1100.

The evolution of Saint Nicholas into the more commercially lucrative Santa Claus—which took centuries in Europe and America—has recently been re-enacted in the saint's home town of Demre, Turkey. The modern city is built near the ruins of ancient Myra, and attracts many Russian tourists as St. Nicholas is a very popular Orthodox saint. Restoration on Saint Nicholas' original church is currently underway, with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2007 permitting Divine Liturgy to be celebrated at the site, and contributing 40,000 Turkish Lira to the project.

In 1993 a grave was found on the small Turkish island of Gemile, east of Rhodes, which historians believe is the grave of Saint Nicholas.

On 28 December 2009, the Turkish Government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of St Nicholas's bones to Turkey from the Italian government.  Turkish authorities have cited the fact that St Nicolas himself wanted to be and actually got buried at his episcopal town. They also state that his remains were illegally removed from his homeland.