Thank you, readers, for your acceptance to rest and post less often as I recover from my fourth concussion. I hope to be back to weekly writing and posting in the new year. In the mean time, below is the manuscript from my sermon last Sunday on St. Nicholas and the legends that contribute to our modern Santa Claus. My sources were varied, including both Wikipedia and the St. Nicholas Center, among others. The prayer at the end is the Anglican collect for his feast day.
This past Wednesday, December 6, was the Feast Day of St. Nicholas. Of all the saints, he is probably one of the most familiar, thanks to his influence on Santa Claus. St. Nicholas lived in the late 3rd century and early 4th century in what is today part of Turkey, along the Mediterranean Sea. He’s from what was then called the city of Myra and today is known as Demre. Also, at the time, this part of Asia Minor was part of Greece; the Turks didn’t come until seven centuries later. Larger scale, for context, this whole region was part of the Roman Empire. Nicholas’s parents were wealthy Christians who died in an epidemic at some point while Nicholas was growing up. In his youth, Nicholas traveled to Egypt and Palestine and when he returned is when he became Bishop of Myra. The Roman Emperor Diocletian persecuted Christians during his rule and Nicholas was one of the many Christians who he imprisoned. It’s unknown how long Nicholas was imprisoned, one source I found said ten years! But, it is mutually agreed on that he was released after Constantine became the new Roman Emperor.
There were three main foci to Nicholas’s ministry, and I’m going to start with the least familiar. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, voyagers, and many cities with harbors. This patronage is because of an early story about when he was returning from that pilgrimage to the Holy Land that I mentioned. Supposedly on the ship sailing from Egypt and Palestine across the Mediterranean back to Myra, there was a horrible storm, and the ship was in danger of wrecking. Nicholas is said to have calmly prayed, and the wind and the waves died down. The ship remained intact, and everyone lived. This story might remind you of a very similar story that happened to Jesus when he was out on the sea with the disciples and a storm came up. The disciples were terrified, scared for their lives, and Jesus told the sea and the storm, “Peace! Be still.” And the storm abated, just like with St. Nicholas.
Another important part of his ministry was his love for children and he is the patron saint of children. You have to remember that in those times, almost two thousand years ago, children were not as beloved as they are today. Only the wealthy sent their children to school or hired tutors or did any kind of education. For everyone else, children were considered miniature adults and were put to work at a young age with household chores and whatever else needed doing. Girls were married off at 10, 11, 12, 13 years old and then they participated in the work of their husband’s household. Besides the cultural aspect of this view of children is also the physical aspect. The infant mortality rate was about 26%, meaning only 1 in 4 babies born would survive their first year of life. Then, even if the child did make it to one year old, the child mortality rate was even higher, estimated at around 50%! Children were not cherished nor invested in because only half of them lived to puberty! Why would you emotionally invest in a child who may or may not be around for very long?
St. Nicholas is only about three hundred years removed from Jesus’ time, and still in the Roman Empire. Some things, like attitudes towards children, have not so drastically changed over those three centuries. So this child mortality rate or view of children is pretty common and prevalent in the passage we read from Mark 10 about Jesus blessing the little children. The disciples wanted to keep the children away from Jesus because they weren’t really thought to be important or worth doing much of anything with. Who knew how long they’d be around, anyway? Plus, all the snotty noses, all those diseases that we have immunizations for today, those were all running rampant, too. It may well have also been for health reasons that the disciples tried to keep distance between Jesus and the children. Either way, the gospel writer makes it a point to tell us that Jesus laid his hands on the children and touched them and blessed them.
Nicholas, likewise, showed special concern for children. The story of the miracle that is the reason he is the patron saint of children tells about three schoolboys traveling home from boarding school (which right there tells you that they are from a wealthy family). They stopped overnight at an inn and the innkeeper kept them for ransom. The parents, who were investing in these children, appealed to Nicholas for help. Nicholas went to talk to the innkeeper, who admitted to actually killing the boys and then putting them in pickling barrels, of all things. However, much like Jesus calling forth Lazarus from the tomb, when Nicholas opened the barrels, the boys stepped out, alive and well.
Finally, the most well-known story and the one that has played a role in the development of Santa Claus is the one where he gives away his family’s money, his inheritance from when his parents died, in order to save three sisters from slavery. These three sisters were from a poor family who did not have the money for their dowries. Remember, women were considered property back then and their parents gave a dowry, whether money or property, to the groom’s family in a way that feels like paying the groom’s family for them to take on their daughter into their household. So, the oldest sister had decided to sell herself into slavery in order to have the money for her two sisters’ dowries. Nicholas heard about her plan and one night, secretly dropped a small bag of gold through her bedroom window. The oldest sister used that gold for her dowry and was able to marry. Nicholas later secretly dropped two more small bags of gold for the younger two sisters as well. Sometimes you’ll see pictures of St. Nicholas holding what looks like three oranges, but are three gold coins to represent the money he gave to these three sisters.
While this particular legend is the only detailed story, this pattern of secret gift-giving and generosity to those in need is prevalent throughout Nicholas’s life. He helped those in need quietly, behind the scenes and not for show. He used his parents’ wealth to give food, clothing, and money to those in poverty and he did so behind the scenes. It reminds me of Jesus’ admonitions of Matthew 6, like “When you give to the needy, do it in secret—even your left hand should not know what your right hand is doing. Then your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.” And, “Whenever you pray, do not… stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others… But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” And Jesus goes on to talk about fasting in secret, too, not looking somber and marking your face so that everyone knows you’re fasting, but about just going about your day while you’re fasting, because God knows you’re doing it, and that’s what counts. Not whether everyone can see you and know all these good things you’re doing. This is also the chapter where Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
St. Nicholas put his treasure in service of those with fewer advantages, fewer resources, lower socioeconomic class, those less valued by society. That’s why he’s known not just for giving gifts, but for being generous with his giving. And he’s known for helping those who are in danger to find peace, whether from a storm on the sea or the hardship of not having enough finances to cover basic costs. This Advent and Christmas season, may we also show kindness to those who are in any kind of need, remember that sometimes it is us.
Almighty God,
in your love you gave your servant Nicholas of Myra
a perpetual name for deeds of kindness both on land and sea:
Grant, we pray,
that your Church may never cease to work for the happiness of children,
the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor,
and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.