(Conversations with Jeffrey--The Series)
“Jeffrey, you believe in
Saint Nick, right?”
“Grandma, remember I'm
13 now!”
“I mean the real
one, the flesh and blood man whose Feast day is December 6 and
celebrated by Catholic Christians all over the world.”
“Don't you mean December
25th and Santa Claus?”
“Nope. At Christmas we
celebrate the birthday of Jesus, although we don't
know the exact date or year of our Savior's birth. I mean Saint
Nicholas, a bishop of the Church, a real historical
figure who lived at the turn of the fourth century.”
“Exactly where did he
live? I'm guessing it wasn't at the North Pole?”
“In Asia Minor in what is
now Turkey, but it was a Greek province at the time. It isn't
far from the Holy Land, Israel, just across the Mediterranean
sea.”
“So there really was
a Saint Nick?”
“Absolutely. Catholic Christian Churches around the
world still honor Saint Nicholas as the generous, model
bishop who put Jesus Christ at the center of his life, his
ministry, and his entire existence.”
“But where does the name
'Santa Claus' and his story come from?”
“'Santa' means 'saint' and 'Claus' came from
shortening the bishop's name 'Nicholas.' Some say that early
Dutch settlers in New York brought their tradition of
'Sinter Klass' to America and that started the tradition
here.”
“Tell me again what a
'saint' is?”
“The word 'saint' means 'holy.' Saints are just
ordinary people who want to live like Jesus taught us to
live, but they are special because they did a good job at
it. The apostle Paul calls all Christians 'saints' in his
writings.”
“They're sort of like
Catholic Christian heroes, right? Like role models?”
“That's the idea. We consider them examples of how
we too should live pleasing to God. Because they are still
alive in Heaven, no matter how long ago they lived on earth,
we can ask them to pray for us.”
“What connection does
this real Saint Nick have to the Santa Claus story today.”
“The Santa Claus story sort
of grew in people's imaginations through the centuries since
the real man lived who was named Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra,
a southern seaport in Turkey. Even the way the modern Santa
Claus is dressed came from the real Saint Nicholas. Bishops of
the Church always wear red and Nicholas was a bishop. Today's
Santa and his 'helpers' are always dressed in red. Starting in
1931 (when Grandma was only six years old!) the Coca-Cola
company started using a caricature of the real Saint Nick for
their advertising.”
“What's a 'caricature'?”
“It's like a cartoon, an
artist's way of exaggerating certain features of the real
person.”
“Do we know anything
about Nicholas as he was growing up?”
“Nick was the only child of
very rich parents who died in an epidemic when he was a young
boy. He grew up in a monastery and became a priest when he was
17. He inherited his parents' wealth and used all of it to
help poor families, widows, and especially children and
orphans. He became famous for his generosity and kindness and
giving of gifts.”
“How long after Jesus'
resurrection did Nicholas live?”
“About 280 years. The
Christian Church was just getting started, but faith in Jesus
was spreading fast all over the known world of that day.
During Nicholas' life the leader of the country, Emperor
Diocletian tried to destroy the Church with his political
power. One of his advisers was the son of a witch. The Emperor
worshiped pagan idols, burned writings about Jesus, and forced
priests to renounce the Christian faith or face death. He
forbade Christians to meet together or hold any government
office. As a bishop and their leader, Nicholas was the main
target for his persecution.”
“Did this stop Bishop
Saint Nick and all those new Christians?”
“The emperor arrested him
and had him tortured for disobeying the new laws. Actually,
the real Saint Nick must have been very skinny, unlike today's
Santa. He spent more than a decade in prison being starved and
also fasted often when he was free. Emperor Diocletian was
eventually defeated, and his kingdom collapsed. Constantine,
who became the next emperor, was favorable to the Christians,
so Saint Nick finally got out of jail.”
“Did everything go
smoothly for the Christians then?”
“There was trouble. Some
who called themselves Christians but didn't believe exactly
what Jesus and His apostles taught caused confusion. Nicholas
was known for his courage to stand firm for the true Christian
faith. He lived it and taught his people well. He was against
the heresies of those times.”
“What's a heresy?”
“It's a teaching that is
contrary to what Jesus and his followers clearly taught. The
main heresy in Nicholas' day was led by a man named Arius from
Egypt. He tried to convince people that Jesus was not really
the Son of God, maybe just a prophet or only a top angel—'sort
of a lord' but not equal to God.”
“How did that all get
settled?”
“In those early first
centuries after Jesus' resurrection when all the new
Christians were forming their common beliefs, they settled
important matters of the Christian Church by calling a Council
of all the bishops. The first one ever was called by Emperor
Constantine during the time of Bishop Nicholas. It was held in
Nicea in 325. More than 300 bishops from all over the
Christian world attended, including Nicholas. Their
conclusions are what we declare in the Nicene Creed
that we say every Sunday at Mass.”
“Did our Saint Nick
stand up against this Arius fellow?”
“Bishop Nick got so angry
with Arius at the Council for saying such things about Jesus,
that he belted him—he hit him with his fist and knocked him
down!”
“Wow! What happened to
Saint Nick?”
“For doing that, the
Emperor took away his vestments and his bishop's credentials
and threw him in prison. The story goes that Jesus and his
Mother appeared to him in a vision in prison and reinstated
him as the bishop.”
“What kind of gifts did
our Saint Nick give to people?”
“Legends say that Saint
Nick always wanted to help people anonymously. He didn't want
to draw attention to himself. On one occasion he heard that a
certain poor man had three daughters who wanted to be married.
But their father didn't have money for a dowry so Bishop Nick
secretly helped him out.”
“What's a dowry?”
“In those early centuries,
a young woman's father had to offer a prospective husband
something of value called a dowry. Without a dowry, she was
not likely to marry and might have to be sold into slavery. On
three different occasions, so the story goes, Saint Nick threw
gold coins through their windows where they landed in
stockings hanging by the fireplace to dry.”
“Could that be where the
custom of filling stockings at Christmas came from?”
“Probably. He is also known
for saving three innocent condemned prisoners who were
blindfolded and ready for the executioner's sword. Nicholas
fearlessly grabbed the sword, cleared them of the unjust
charges, and the men went free. Saint Nick is widely known as
the patron saint of children. There are other stories of him
rescuing children from danger after they were kidnapped or
missing. There is a scary one about three little children
lured into the clutches of an evil butcher. At another time
three theological students were murdered by an innkeeper and
their bodies chopped up and hidden in a pickling tub.”
“That's gross, Grandma.
Is it true?”
“Who knows? Stories grow
bigger with the retelling. Saint Nick was said to have
restored the dead students to life. He had a strong concern
for justice, especially for innocent condemned prisoners. Also
for intervening in favor of people unjustly jailed, which was
common in those days.”
“He must have been quite
an aggressive man.”
“You could say that, but it
was always to defend the true faith of Jesus. The real Saint
Nick also destroyed many shrines to pagan idols, drove the
demons away, and built churches in their place. He so totally
destroyed the most beautiful and famous pagan temple dedicated
to the goddess Artemis, who was the Roman equivalent of the
Greek goddess Diana, that not one stone was left in place.
Thousands of churches all over the world are named in honor of
Saint Nicholas.”
“Did Saint Nick ever get
to the Holy Land?”
“He went there on a
pilgrimage. On his way back, the story goes that the ship he
was on and the sailors were protected when he prayed, like
Jesus did, for God to calm the storm. Many seaports especially
in Greece, since Nicholas was Greek by birth, erected statues
of him surrounded by small ships made of silver or carved from
wood. Sailors even now ask him to pray for their protection.
Instead of wishing one another luck, they say, 'May Saint
Nicholas hold the tiller.'”
“Is Dec. 6th
Saint Nick's birthday? How did the idea of giving gifts get
shifted to December 25th ?”
“Dec. 6 is the day he died.
Saints' days are always commemorated on the day of death, the
happy day of their entrance into eternal life. In Europe it
was on Saint Nicholas' day when gifts were given. At that time
gifts were mainly nuts, apples, and sweets put into shoes left
beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.”
“Where did the idea come
from that Santa comes down the chimney?”
“Well, that certainly
didn't come from the days of the real Saint Nick. Did you know
that chimneys weren't even built on houses in those days?
Chimneys didn't come into use until the 13th
century when they were constructed in northern Europe.”
“A lot of the early
Santa pictures you showed me have a hooked staff behind him
in the sleigh. What's that all about?”
“That custom did come from
our real Saint Nick. It is called a 'crozier' and is always
carried by a bishop even now in our Churches. It represents a
shepherd's staff since a bishop is to be the shepherd of his
people, as Jesus is the Good Shepherd.”
“Bishop Loverde carried
a crozier like that when he conducted our Confirmation
Mass.”
“Did you notice that in some pictures of Santa today
he is carrying a big book? In some European gift-giving
traditions the large book represents the record of
children's behavior—Santa is checking if they were 'naughty
or nice.' But the big book we see at Mass from which the
priest or the lector reads is the Book of the Gospels or the
Holy Scriptures.”
“For today's Santa,
where did the idea of the sleigh and reindeer come from?”
“It took generations before
the tradition settled on Santa coming on Christmas to bring
gifts. In 1821 the first, small, lithographed book was
published in America titled The Children's Friend. A
'Sancte Claus' (in German, 'Sankt Nicklaus') was pictured with
a red beard arriving from the North in a sleigh pulled by one
sort of exhausted-looking flying reindeer. They were shown
landing on a roof by a chimney. Santa began to be thought of
as rewarding good behavior and punishing bad. Gifts were
mostly safe toys, dolls, and books. The sleigh even had a
bookshelf! From then on the tradition shifted away from the real
Saint Nicholas celebration to Santa coming on Christmas eve.”
“Grandma, that long-ago
picture shows Santa as a tiny man not the big guy in
pictures we see now.”
“That was still the idea
two years later when Clement Clark Moore wrote the poem 'The
Night Before Christmas' for his six kids. The way the
author imagined Santa was 'chubby and plump, a right jolly old
elf' and his sleigh was miniature. The description stuck and
the poem became famous.”
“Where did that long
clay pipe and all the smoke Santa blew from it originate?”
“The traditional pipe was
from the Dutch, who were known to be heavy smokers. It wasn't
until the end of the 1920s (when Grandma was in kindergarten!)
that the American Santa began to be pictured as a normal-sized
old man but with a hugely fat belly.”
“And his original red
beard has became all white and long to match the fur trim on
his suit. He has a fat, white mustache, rosy cheeks and
twinkling eyes.”
“That's the way the story goes. And he wears snow
boots, a wide black belt, and a long-tailed ski cap. But Bishop
Saint Nick's hat was called a 'miter,' the special tall,
pointed hat of his appointed office.”
“And I guess he likes
Coca-Cola, or hot chocolate, and cookies that people leave
by the fireplace for him!”
“Now he owns eight reindeer
(nine, if you count the new Rudolf with the red nose!) and a
bunch of elf assistants who are busy making toys all year. And
the toys are really high-tech now!”
“That doesn't sound much
like our original Saint Nick.”
Today's Santa is pictured as flying through the air from the North Pole; Saint Nick walked the earth caring for those in need.
Santa, as we know him, was brought on the scene to boost commercial Christmas sales; Saint Nicholas brought the message of Christ and peace, goodwill toward all—the real Christmas story. Santa belongs to childhood fantasy; Saint Nick is still a Christian model for all of us.”
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