Like many who lived more than a 1,000 years ago, aspects of their lives have grown out of legends, stories handed down through the ages from one person to another. Such was Nicholas of Lycia, born about 275 A.D.
When Nicholas was about 13, his uncle, the bishop of Patara, became his guardian when Nicholas’ wealthy parents died during the plague. Nicholas was sole heir to their fortune.
Continuing in the way of his parents’ good deeds, Nicholas used his wealth to feed and clothe the poor and needy.
One story recounts how Nicholas secretly helped three daughters of a poor man. In those days, a bride was expected to bring a dowry of money or property to her marriage as a gift to the husband. The man had no way to provide a dowry for even the eldest daughter. After the sisters slept, one night Nicholas lowered small bags of gold through each of their open windows.
Nicholas became a priest at age 19. Because of his young age, he was known as “Boy Bishop.”
He took a holy trip to Jerusalem and visited sacred places. Suddenly he knew he needed to return to Lycia and sailed on the first ship. A violent storm shredded the ship’s sails and snapped the main mast. The frightened sailors begged Nicholas to pray for their safety. For two days and nights Nicholas prayed, and the crew and he arrived safely. After that, Nicholas was known as the patron saint of sailors.
About that time in the town of Myra, the bishop had died. The priest in Myra had prayed for God to send the right person to become bishop. In a dream a voice told him to wait by the cathedral for the first man named Nicholas. He should be the new bishop. On his way home to Lycia, Nicholas passed through Myra and talked to the priest at the cathedral door. Of course, Nicholas became the next bishop of Myra.
Another story tells of how during a famine, Nicholas urged the ships’ captains to share some of their cargo grain for the hungry. The captains told him they were responsible for any shortages. Nicholas assured them that when they arrived at their destinations, there would be no shortages. So the captains gave 100 bushels of wheat from each ship to Nicholas and his people. When the ships reached Constantinople, the cargo weighed exactly as when they left Egypt.
Another legendary story involves three school boys coming home for the holidays. They stayed overnight at an inn. The innkeeper murdered the boys, cut them up, and put their remains in pickling barrels behind the inn. The parents notified Nicholas of their absences. He set out in search of the boys. Somehow Nicholas got the innkeeper to admit he had killed the boys and took him to the barrels. Nicholas waved his crosier, his priestly sepulcher, over the barrels, and the boys stepped from the barrels alive and unharmed.
Through the decades, Nicholas was given credit for gifting children on the feast of his day, December 6. He supposedly left the gifts in shoes, stockings, and paper boats set out to receive the gifts.
Through more years, the gift-giving traditions changed. And Nicholas became known by various names: Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, and Grandfather Frost. Most historians believe Santa Claus is a descendent of Saint Nicholas of the Dutch. Others believe Washington Irving, author of Diedrich Knickerbocker’s A History of New York, and Clement Moore, author of A Visit from St. Nicholas, and Thomas Nast, cartoonist, brought about Santa Claus.
No matter whatever story is truth, Santa Claus retains the essential gift-giving aspects of St. Nicholas.
The First Noel