Saint Nicholas, the model for the modern Santa Claus, was not only a real person (and a Saint), but he was also known for many wonderful deeds that we all associate with the Holiday Season. Here are ten facts behind one of the most famous Saints.
10. Who is Saint Nicholas?
Saint Nicholas (in Greek: “Victory of the People”) the common name of a Lycian saint and Roman Catholic Bishop of Myra in Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey, though then it was a Greek-speaking Roman Province). He was born during the third century (around 270 AD) in the village of Patara. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, but is now commonly identified with, and often as, Santa Claus.
9. What Did Saint Nicholas Do?
As the Patron Saint of sailors, Nicholas is claimed to have been a sailor or fisherman, himself. More likely, however, is that one of his family businesses involved managing a fishing fleet. When his parents died, Nicholas received his inheritance, but is said to have given it away to the poor. St. Nicholas was a working, albeit wealthy, man who complemented his day job with caring for his congregation as well as a full-time Bishop.
8. Saint Nicholas the Anti-Heretic
Not only was Nicholas intolerant of pagans, he was also intolerant of Arianism. Nicholas is listed as a participant in the First Council of Nicaea. There, according to legend, he became so angry upon hearing the views of Arius that he rushed over to the heretic and gave him a tremendous box on his ears, sending him to the ground. Nicholas is also known for coming to the defense of the falsely accused, often preventing them from being executed. He is also known for his intercession on behalf of sailors and other travelers. The popular veneration of Nicholas as a saint seems to have started relatively early.
7. Where is St. Nick Now and How Does He Look?
Whereas the importance of relics, and the business associated with pilgrims and patron saints, caused the remains of most saints to be spread over several churches in several countries, St Nicholas is unique in that most of his bones have been preserved in one spot: his grave crypt in Bari. In the summer of 2005, the report of his remains measurements was sent to a forensic laboratory in England. The review of the data revealed that the historical St Nicholas was barely five feet in height (while not exactly small, still shorter than average, even for his time) and had a broken nose. The photo above is of a forensic reconstruction of St Nicholas’ face based upon his skull x-rays and measurements.
6. Which Unusual Deed is St. Nick Known For?
Another legend tells how a terrible famine struck the island of Myra. Since St. Nick is the patron saint of sailors, his exploits are explained when a malicious butcher lured three little children into his house on Myra, and killed and slaughtered them and put 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 managed to resurrect the three boys from the barrel.
5. Saint Nicholas’ Most Famous Assistance
In his most famous exploit, however, a poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and, probably, in the absence of any other potential employment, would have to become prostitutes. Hearing of the poor man’s plight, Nicholas decided to help him. However, being too modest (or too shy) to help the man in public, (or knowing the man too proud to accept charity), he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses filled with gold coins through the window opening onto the man’s floor.
4. The Manna of a Saint
It is said that in Myra, the bones of Saint Nicholas each year sweated out a clear watery liquid, called Manna, which, of course, was said to possess immense powers. As the bones were stolen and brought to Bari, they continued to do so, much to the joy of the new owners. So even up to today, a flask of Manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on December 6th (the Saint’s feast day).
3. How Was the Saint Celebrated Then?
Today, Saint Nicholas is still celebrated as a great gift-giver in several Western European countries. According to one source, medieval nuns used the night of December 6th to anonymously deposit baskets of food and clothes at the doorsteps of the needy. According to another source, on December 6th every sailor or ex-sailor of the Low Countries (which at that time was virtually all of the male population) would descend to the harbour towns to participate in a church celebration for their patron saint.
2. Saint Nicholas: A Saint for a Season
Saint Nicholas Day is a festival for children in much of Europe related to surviving legends of the saint, and particularly his reputation as a bringer of gifts. The American Santa Claus, as well as the Anglo-Canadian and British Father Christmas, derive from these legends. “Santa Claus” is, itself, derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas. Some elements of this part of the Saint Nicholas tradition can be traced back to the Germanic god Wodan (Odin). The appearance is similar to some portrayals of this god. In the Saint Nicholas tradition in the Netherlands and Flanders (Northern Belgium), he rides a horse over the rooftops, and this may be derived from Odin’s riding through the sky.
1. Saint Nicholas: U.S. Traditions
While feasts of Saint Nicholas are not observed nationally, cities with strong German influences like Milwaukee, Cincinnati and St. Louis celebrate St. Nick’s Day on a scale similar to the German custom. On the previous night, children put one empty shoe (or sock) outside, and, on the following morning of December 6th, the children awake to find that St. Nick has filled their previously empty footwear with candy and small presents (if the children have been “good”) or, ostensibly, coal (if not). For these children, the relationship between St. Nick and Santa Claus is not clearly defined, although St. Nick is usually explained to be a helper of Santa.
Contributor: StewWriter
I wonder how the elves came to be.
The elves were added fairly recently, along with the concept that he lives in his workshop at the North Pole. These parts of the legend are attributed to Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast in the latter half of the 19th century.
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm
Interesting list, I didnt know half of them. We did something about St Nick at school, but it was only the basics about him and what he did.
Nothing on Sinter Klaas though? I used to live in Holland as a kid, he was a big part of St Nick day.
Am I the only one who thinks the St Nick in No. 7 looks like Malcolm Macdowell in ‘Heroes’?
dangorironhide: haha – he does look a bit like him.
JOE: Good question – Wikipedia talks about them but doesn’t mention origin. I suspect they probably come from mythology around the winter season and got caught in the Santa Claus mythology.
dangorironhide: I thought that too… Maybe malcolm is a descendant of some sort… a great great great great (etc) grand nephew or something.:)
Wow! St. Nick was a Greek shipping tychoon. I wonder if he was engaged to Paris Hilton?
Interesting list, as a Catholic, I didn’t even know some of this stuff, like the kids getting slaughtered and almost eaten. Sweeny Todd any one?
For any one who wants to know more about the history of santa, try reading Jeff Guinn’s The Autobiography of Santa Claus. It has a biography of what the man’s life mostlikely would have been like, as well as the history of the legend and how he spread over the world. Best of all, you can even read it to the kids with out ruining any beliefs the might have because its written from Santa’s point of veiw.
AdoraBelle: I agree, my education as a Catholic didn’t really cover any detail about any of the Saints.
My favorite part is that forensic reconstruction included a beard! Let’s not keep the whole Santa Claus image going, huh?
Santa….I knew you were real!!!!
oki, this is pretty interesting stuff though
5.thus becoming the daughters first customer?
Oh man, I can’t wait for Joe (the guy who wrote the thesis over in the Top 10 Misconceptions list) to read this one…
Go over there and read some of his comments. The dude totally has it in for Santa.
very informative
“So even up to today, a flask of Manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on December 6th (the Saint’s feast day)”
What exactly is extracted again I dont get it?!?
Harsha: it is a purified water that leaks from his bones.
Andy: Lol.
Good list, Stew. I didn’t know…well, pretty much any of these except 1, obviously. Still, Christmas is a weird collaboration of traditions that don’t really make sense or mesh but its all good anyway. =)
I’m confused about this business of Saint Nicholas being helper of Santa Claus. That’s like saying that Joshua bar Joseph the Nazarene was Jesus Christ’s helper. It’s the same person.
They’re saying that ‘St Nic being Santa’s helper’ is the usual explanation in the U.S. tradition. I think they’re making the point that generally in the U.S. tradition the relationship between St Nic and Santa isn’t clearly understood, and hence why they can be mistakenly thought of as two different people.
If Saint Nicholas knew what his image has created, don’t you think he’d come box all of us about the ears?
I just don’t really get why there is no real mentioning of the dutch/belgian holiday Sinterklaas? (celebrated on the fifth, and never the sixth, of december). Don’t really get the fact about the helper thing. Since Santa Claus is just a mere and weak substraction from the original Saint Nicholas. I love the history-explanations though. I always knew something, but never the entire story.
However I miss some parts about how it is being celebrated in Holland/Belgium (the countries that really celebrate it. For instance why Sinterklaas arrives with a steamboat and why he is coming from Spain?
It’s a fine list, but it has alot of “glitches”.
One thing about Saint Nicholas that I learned recently is that many scholars believe him to be a myth as well. Evidence shows he never was at the places he was said to be. The stories attributed to him are, interestingly enough, attributed to Poseidon.
Hellbound Alleee, stop attacking religion! OMG!!! That’s what she does, so live with it.
Odd that it doesn’t mention Sinterklaas at all, it predates the American tradition by far. About the Elves, in the Dutch tradition St Nikolaas has a black helper, called Black Peter. Americans prolly changed the black helpers into the more politcally correct Elf.
SHUT UP UGLY
I knew a lot of these. But thats mainly because I was raised a Croatian catholic and St. Nicholas is a big thing there. Plus I was in a sailing club called St. Nicholas for about 7 to 8 years. Great list, very original.
St Nick and Santa are two different people who have sadly morphed into one person. In German traditon: ON December 6th the children of the country would clean out their best par of shoes and leave them on the door step, the next morning they would have gifts (normally fruits or nuts in older tradtion, then trinckets in newer ones). If they were bad children however the evil guy who follows him around would leave switches/coal in the shoes. The man who later became Santa was a gift giver from a different time and country.
awesome(:
st.nicholas ROCKS!
weiner chinese santa
im sorry guys bout that
yo whats up sinta hows it going
wow bum hole
sinta man sinta man cant do whatever a sinta spider cant do he can fly no he cant look out here comes sinta klass
asin sants rules oo yeahhhhh
omg sinta klams is coming to town to marry paris hilton and shave gurdeeps beard
I’m just curious of the proof of his intolerance to the Pagans — the same question posed to Wikipedia, from where the majority of this page/article was plagerised.
rjcb3 is dunb and wat are you asking well not dunb but ya
ooo ya
"American Santa Claus, as well as the Anglo-Canadian and British Father Christmas, derive from these legends. “Santa Claus” is itself derived from the Dutch "
as a canadian, this leaves me confused, and slightly offended
take this opportunity to ask if you're aware that the america's are a series of continents in the western hemisphere, and by being a canadian, i am every bit as american as those in the united states.
Anglo Canadian?!?! wtf does that mean? Im from toronto, never head that. heard of father christmas, but im under the impression that is a rather old, mostly dead term, and that the dead guy is just called santa clause now.
St. Nicholas was not Roman Catholic. Not even the Catholic Church believes that. He was and Eastern saint. There was no difference between Catholic and Orthodox back then, but he was of the Eastern Rite, not the Roman one.
how does he get there to the netherlands?
The Catholic church and its followers should be utterly ashamed at allowing one of their best known saints to be exploited by the Coca Cola drinks corporation for monetary gain and encouraging the ill-health of children (and adults); the same corporation which initially used amphetamine drugs (cocaine) in their drink to encourage and promote the addiction of the product.
Santa Claus is from Pagan/Norse mythology… Just throwin that out there.