Saint Nicholas’ Last Days in the East
For many centuries
Nicholas’ burial place at Myra was a pilgrimage center. However, as time went
on, the eastern Mediterranean became a Muslim sea with many pirates, unsafe for
travelers. Fewer and fewer came to visit. Then an earthquake devastated Myra
leaving the shrine in ruins, his vault nearly buried. (We have at our church
some stones from the ruins of the old Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Myra. Did Saint
Nicholas himself walk on them, by them?)
San Nikola Basilica in Bari
First, Saint Nicholas’ relics get stolen
In the year 1087 a
ship of merchants from Bari in southern Italy came and, well…, stole his body
and took it home. They said that they had had a vision of Nicholas begging them
to rescue him from the Muslims. According to the account, the Christians of
Myra put up no objection. I doubt that. My guess is that these merchants, like
all their kind, knew a good moneymaking venture when they saw it. Ever since,
Nicholas’ body has lain in San Nikola Basilica in Bari which drew and still
draws many pilgrims, with merchants still making money off the pilgrims.
Eastern bishops did not object overmuch to Nicholas going to Italy, since this
was before the division between East and West, and Southern Italy was still
culturally Greek and ecclesiastically Orthodox at this point. The result has
been that our Bishop Nicholas wound up in Roman Catholic hands. However, there
is now an Orthodox chapel to the left
next to his burial place in the Basilica, and Orthodox Divine Liturgies are
celebrated there regularly. God bless the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bari.
Next, Saint Nicholas’ personality gets stolen
How was Saint
Nicholas transmogrified* into modern Santa Claus? Here’s the strange story as
best I can put it together.
* Yes, this is a real word! I first learned it
from the old cartoon “Calvin and Hobbes”! It means “to change or alter greatly,
often for grotesque or humorous effect”, which certainly fits the case here.
In Orthodox and
other Mediterranean lands, so far as I can determine, Saint Nicholas has
remained Saint Nicholas. However in northern Europe legends and myths began to
develop about him – maybe because during most of the Middle Ages people there
were largely uneducated.
If you’ve ever
studied mythology, you know once myths get started they just grow, and there’s
no stopping them. And so they did. For example my grandfather whose family came
from southern Germany called Saint Nicholas “Pelznickel” (literally “Rod Nicholas”).
In south German mythology this was a fur-clad old man who carried a rod or
switch and on the eve of December 6 brought good boys and girls a gift – with
any luck an orange which was a great delicacy. But bad children were said to
get a smack with the rod. However, my father thought it was Saint Nicholas who
came visiting, accompanied by a little imp called Black Peter who brought a
lump of coal to bad children. And so it went on in a quiet harmless way.
Something at this
time of year seems to require gift-giving. (The return of the sun? which is
well worth celebrating.) In Greece, for example, Saint Basil gives gifts on
Saint Basil’s Day, January 1. After the Reformation saints were ignored in
Protestant lands, but often they continued in disguise. In the Low Countries
now it was Sinter Klaas (say “Saint Nicholas” 3 times fast) who brought gifts.
In England “Father Christmas” still brings presents at Christmas. But little of
this was connected directly with Saint Nicholas.
Santa Claus arrives
However, in America
Saint Nicholas was entirely transformed. In the 1830s Clement Clarke Moore, a
professor at my old Episcopal Seminary in New York, wrote a poem for his
children called “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”. In it (for reasons God only
knows – Moore never explained) he turned our holy bishop into a “jolly old
[Norse] elf” who lived at the North Pole, flew through the air in a sleigh
powered by “eight tiny reindeer” (Rudolph was a 20th century invention) and who
was small enough to come “down the chimney with a bound” to bring children’s
gifts at Christmas. Because the poem
was so charming it became immensely popular and remains so – but it has nearly
destroyed the popular image of Saint Nicholas as a holy bishop.
As I said, myths
grow and develop, and this one has grown like crazy, and in America during the
19th century Saint Nicholas the elf mutated into our modern Santa Claus.
Clement Clarke
Moore lived in New York City, originally New Amsterdam, where Dutch tradition
was still strong. So Saint Nicholas became the Dutch Sinter Klaas, and then
“Santa Claus”, and by the end of the century he had grown into a full-sized fat
jolly old man.
“The business of
America is business”, so by the early twentieth century, American commercial
interests saw an opportunity. Santa Claus began to appear in advertisements
selling Coca Cola and what not, and he soon became the promoter of American
Christmastime consumerism. He still retained an air of mystery. However, with
the advent of popular television about the year 1950, it all began to go crazy.
He appeared in multiple TV commercials, often wearing an obviously fake beard.
And as commercial interests have pushed the shopping season earlier and
earlier, today we find Santa and sometimes Mrs. Claus arriving by helicopter in
mid November and then he appears all over the place selling autos and
toothpaste.. and… well, I found him on YouTube selling sex toys. (For your own
peace of mind, don’t look it up!) In
his oddest recent Milwaukee manifestations 1) I saw him on a street corner
recently holding up a sign “BUY ONE GET ONE FREE” and 2) this December Santa
has been hearing children’s requests in the main building of a large local
“commercial minded” cemetery! Future archaeologists, studying the remains of
our culture, will wonder what in the world this was all about. Was he a myth or
did people really believe in this odd seasonal god? And why did they pay so
much more attention to him than to Jesus whose birth they were presumably
celebrating?
American Santa
Claus has now gone abroad. I read about an American visiting Germany who was
taken by a German friend to a Saint Nicholas Cathedral, and assuming Americans
didn’t know about Saint Nicholas (he was probably right) said, “Saint Nicholas.
You know, Santa Claus”. In Myra,
where till recently there stood a respectable statue of Saint Nicholas. Look what
they’ve replaced him with:
By the way, if you
want extreme mythological fusion, I read about a plastic Santa Claus in Greece
who, if you pulled the string on his back, said “Ho! Ho! Ho! Saint Basil is
coming!”
His outfit still
shows it’s episcopal origins: a red hat sort of like a droopy western mitre,
white beard, red “vestments” (for Orthodox Advent?).
But oh! what have
they done to our dear blessed Saint Nicholas?! I’ve come to think of modern
Santa Claus as Saint Nicholas’ off-the-wall nephew – you know, the one who went
more than a little “strange”, whom you’d prefer to keep up in the attic when
company comes.
What’s good about Santa Claus
Don’t get me wrong
here: I do not intend to be the Grinch. Parents, please don’t destroy little
children’s belief in Santa Claus – as if we could! That would be cruel. At
least as I remember it from when I was a boy, it can develop in children a
healthy sense of mystery and wonder. When I was 6 or 7 I asked my mother “How
long has Santa Claus been around?” She responded “Forever, I guess”, and for
the first time I caught a glimmering of “eternity”. Have you ever seen the 1947
movie or read the book Miracle on 34th
Street about an old man named Kris Kringle who thinks he really is Santa
Claus, and while playing (no, “being”) Santa Claus at Macy’s quietly reverses
the American commercial spirit, and by the end you wonder…well, see it or read
it for yourself. A sweet book, with no overt Christian connections, but it’s
filled with joy and wonder. I loved to read it when I was a boy; I still do. It
captures the mystery of Santa Claus and Christmas as it was then – in those old
days before children could see Santa 20 times a day on TV.
All I ask is that
we don’t confuse Santa Claus with Saint Nicholas. Parents, go out of our way to
teach our children about the true Saint Nicholas. Here’s how my wife and I
handled it with our kids, 45 years ago. When they asked about Santa Claus we
answered “What do you think?”, which saved us from lying, and allowed them to
think it through and be proud of themselves when they figured it out. We still
put out presents on Christmas night to be opened in the morning.
But also on Saint
Nicholas Eve, following family custom, we hung up their stockings, and using
stick figures Saint Nicholas appeared from behind the sofa promising a present
the next morning. Black Peter (his clothing
was black) then emerged accusing them of being bad. Saint Nicholas defended
them, and sure enough in the morning… They knew all this was play-acting, but
then we’d tell them the true story of good Saint Nicholas the bishop. Parents,
do something like that. Be inventive. At Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church, it’s
much easier: we talk about his icon and all the good things he has done for us
and for everyone.
Saint Nicholas begins to escape
Have you noticed
that only rarely do we hear Santa Claus called “Saint Nicholas” any more, as he
was when I was young. Hooray! In America today I don’t think one person in a
thousand would automatically identify our commercial Santa Claus with Bishop
Saint Nicholas. I think this means he is escaping from the myth people have
created for him. And I think we can help him. Tell the story of good Bishop
Nicholas – with your children, with non-Orthodox and even uneducated Orthodox,
as you have opportunity. Spread devotion to Saint Nicholas of Myra, the
Wonderworker. Help him to escape from his ridiculous man-made prison of “Ho!
Ho! Ho! Buy a Mercedes!” Or worse.
Dear holy Bishop
Nicholas, pray for us.
In this article above I complained much about what’s
happened to Saint Nicholas in the West. Please remember that much in Western
Christianity is good and holy and beautiful. I wish to you and your loved ones
a blessed and holy feast of the Nativity of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
By Fr Bill Olnhausen
Source:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/frbill/44-real-santa-claus-part-two-saint-nicholas-stolen-twice/
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