The Catalog of Good Deeds

Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. (Matthew 2:2).

We meet the so called wise men, who came from the remote and mysterious Orient to worship the newborn King of Judah, on the very first pages of the Gospel. We feel warm and relaxed whenever we mention those wise men, or Magi. They bring about the memories of a happy and serene Christmas holiday. Those three old men wearing funny hats made a long way to honor Baby Jesus and bring him their gifts. We can't help thinking about gifts that will make our loved ones happy, about the coziness of a family reunion, and the twinkling lights on the Christmas Tree.

With that said, the Bible in general and the Gospel in particular has a strongly negative attitude towards wizards and pagan diviners. The book of Deuteronomy warns, There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). The attitude expressed in the New Testament is no less harsh. Suffice it to say that Apostle Paul strikes Elymas the Sorcerer blind for opposing his preaching of Christ on Cyprus (see Acts 13). Simon Magus receives a serious warning from Apostle Peter who scolds him in no unclear terms for his attempt to buy the apostolic power with money. Why, then, are the strict prohibitions of the Old Testament inapplicable to the Wise Men of Christmas ?

Who were those Magi? These wise old men came from afar to worship Baby Jesus. They have been venerated as saints in the West since ancient times to the point that they even have commemoration dates (January 1 for Casper, January 6 for Melchior, January 11 for Balthazar, and January 6—the Epiphany—for the three wise men together). Their relics initially rested in Constantinople, then they were transferred to Milan, and finally to the Cologne Cathedral, where they rest today.

Unfortunately, we don't know their exact origins and how many of them there really were. There are a number of guesses as to who those mysterious travelers from the Orient were.

According to Greek historian Herodotus, the Magi (μάγοι in Greek, meaning wizards or sorcerers) simply belonged to a Median tribe called the Magi, which carried out the functions not unlike those of the tribe of Levi. Others claim that the Magi is a caste of learned priests and prophets in the Persian Empire who studied medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and other sciences. Prophet Daniel is known to have been appointed the chief Magus, i.e., the chief sage in Babylon. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. (Daniel 2:48).

The exact number of the wise men who arrived in Jerusalem and the point of their departure isn’t clear, either. Various medieval sources contain information about 2, 4, 6, 8 wise men, while Syriac tradition mentions 12 wise men who had a large retinue. Finally, Origen’s version about three wise men gained traction, primarily because they are said to have brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The country of the wise men’s origin is also unclear because the phrase we have seen his star in the east can be interpreted in multiple ways. When the Greeks and Romans spoke about the East, they didn’t always mean any exact geographical region. Hence, ancient Greeks would often mistake Ethiopia, which is located in the south, in the East Africa, for India, which is located in the east. The wise men are said to have arrived from the mysterious Tarshish or the legendary land of Ophir, or Arabia and the Kingdom of Sheba, based on the words of Psalm 72, The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. (Ps. 72:10). Some Holy Fathers, including Saint Maximus of Turin (5th century), conjectured that the wise men or at least one of them possibly hailed from Ethiopia or India. That is why one of the wise men is often traditionally portrayed as a black man. Bede the Venerable (+735) already provides us with the names of the three wise men, which were later incorporated into the church tradition of the Western Church: Casper, who is a beardless young man, Melchior, who is an old man with a long beard, and Balthazar, who is black. The same Bede the Venerable wrote that the wise men were the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth and thus represented all human race and all human wisdom seeking the truth and finding it in Christ.

There is another, no less ingenious hypothesis of some Holy Fathers who consider the three wise men to be the descendants of the diviner (another good wizard, mind you) and prophet Balaam who blessed Israelites instead of cursing them and who foresaw a certain star:

I shall see him, but not now:

I shall behold him, but not nigh:

there shall come a Star out of Jacob,

and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel,

and shall smite the corners of Moab,

and destroy all the children of Sheth. (Num. 24:17)

Blessed Jerome of Stridon and Saint Ambrose of Milan followed the tradition attributed to Origen and assumed that Balaam’s descendants passed from one generation to the next generation a legend about a certain star that would point at the newborn Messiah who would bring many children of Sheth to repentance. It is no surprise, then, that the wise men were so happy when they saw the star and embarked on the distant and dangerous journey to honor the Messiah: their ancestors had been waiting for that star for many centuries.

As far as the star itself is concerned, there are even more guesses with regard to its origin and nature. This question bothered the curious minds of ancient Christian exegetes and contemporary scholars alike. Thus, St. John Chrysostom suggested that the star was in fact an Angel of the Lord who took the image of the star for the sake of the Oriental stargazers who were interested in astronomy and astrology. Saint John stressed the superior knowledge of the ancient Jews who, having learned monotheism from God, were able to have apparitions of angels, whereas the Oriental sages who hadn’t been instructed by the light of true worship of God, were led to Christ by a star, as it is sung in the Orthodox Christmas hymns. It must be noted that the wise men, having worshipped Christ, didn’t return to King Herod as he had asked them to, willing to kill the newborn King. Instead, being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way (Matthew 2:12). We see that the three wise men, having recognized Baby Jesus as the Messiah, are immediately deemed worthy of having a revelation in a dream. Allegedly, the wise men, after they learned the Truth, did no longer need to study astrology. They returned to their homeland as Christians and were later baptized and even made bishops by Apostle Thomas.

Contemporary scholars generally assert that the appearance of the Bethlehem Star was nothing other than a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces, which took place in the year 7 BC. The Biblical science and Orthodox calendar also place the year of birth of the Savior into the same period.

Therefore, we don’t know for sure both the exact number and the origin of the mysterious wise stargazers and the origin and the nature of the Bethlehem Star but it doesn’t matter. What really matters is the fact that humans are looking for the truth, yearning to acquire it and serve it, for serving the truth is the genuine liberation of the human race. [Y]e shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32). Indeed, it’s exciting to read about several wise men from the East who undertook such a long journey to worship the Baby born in a miserable cave in a small town of Bethlehem, unknown to the rest of the world, and to bring Him gifts. Nowadays, the whole world remembers and loves those mysterious Magi, respects their humility before the Baby and his Most Pure Mother, and rejoices with them. They found the Messiah—the Anointed One anticipated by the patriarchs and prophets of old, the Mighty King whom Virgil had dreamed of in his Fourth Eclogue and the Peacemaker whom Moses prophesied:

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,

nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come;

and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. (Gen. 49:10).

By John Nichiporuk,

a Bachelor of Theology,

specialized in Biblical Studies.

The Catalog Of Good Deeds, 2018

See full Nativity infographics here.

On the night of October 22-23, the abbot of Dochariou Monastery of holy Mount Athos, Archimandrite Gregory (Zumis), a close relative of the famous Athonite elder Joseph the Hesychast, reposed. He received the monastic tonsure from Elder Amphilochios of Patmos, a famous ascetic of piety. Having arrived there, he revived Dochariou Monastery, where he was elected abbot. In his last years, he endured suffering from a severe, incurable disease without complaint. Speaking of himself, the Elder would humbly ask prayers for the “robber Gregory.”

Maxim Klimenko, an historian, screenwriter, translator from Greek, and Orthodox publicist, personally knew Elder Gregory, visiting him on Mt. Athos many times over the course of thirty years.

By the great mercy of God, I was fortunate enough to know Elder Gregory from Dochariou Monastery for nearly thirty years. Communication with him left a lasting impression on all: on those who were close to Dochariou Monastery and could rightly consider themselves spiritual children of the newly-reposed Elder Gregory, and on those who met him at least once. I saw this many times.

I first saw Elder Gregory in 1989 or 1990 as I was approaching Dochariou Monastery. I was a subdeacon then, and I had a blessing to wear a cassock, and, of course, I had a relatively new and tidy one. Suddenly I saw a man in rather shabby form: His entire riassa consisted of patches (I’m not exaggerating), and on top of it, you could say he was wearing rags and a black apron, also completely tattered. This man of strange appearance was very busy: He was polishing a bronze candle stand with a special tool.

On Mt. Athos, all the monasteries try to polish the Church utensils to shining before the Great Feasts, so the church would meet the feast, especially if it’s the patronal feast, in all its splendor. The glare from the fire of the candles and lampadas plays especially beautifully on these polished surfaces. But, as a rule, this heavy and exhausting work of making them shine is done by the novices and younger brothers, of which Dochariou Monastery has never been in shortage under Abbot Gregory…

Dochariou Monastery

“Bless,” I said, addressing the laboring monk (on Mt. Athos, they ask a blessing from all the monks, not just the priests).

“God bless you,” he said, not looking up from his work.

“I would like, if it’s possible, to see the abbot,” I said.

“And why do you need the abbot?” he asked, continuing to work fervently.

I explained that I had a letter of recommendation from Moscow to give him, and so on.

“And who might you be?” he asked me, starting a conversation that was more like an interrogation…

And when he had learned everything that interested him, then, still not putting down his work, he suddenly baffled me: “Well, I’m the abbot. Come on, get up and help me.”

We all remember the life of St. Sergius, and we remember something similar from the examples of the ancient patericons. But here it wasn’t the same. Everything was somehow very everyday, ordinary, natural. Not staged, not theatrical. That’s how I saw the Elder the first time.

Of course, everyone noticed his simplicity and accessibility, but for all of that, he was no simpleton! That’s the thing of it. As we know, he graduated brilliantly from the theological department of Athens University. He studied throughout his entire life afterwards, and communicated with and became close friends with people who were the color and pride of Orthodox theology not just in Greece, but in the entire Orthodox world. Highly-learned people with many degrees and regalia would visit him from afar, and they all found interesting conversation with him. He wasn’t some uneducated “peasant in a cassock.” No.

Maxim Klimenko

One day we were talking and the conversation turned to the interpretation of some question from the ancient philosophers Plato, Eutychus, and Aristotle… And suddenly the Elder began to illuminate this topic so encyclopedically, broadly and deeply from the point of view of the mystical experience of the Church and Orthodox spirituality, that everyone participating in the conversation was simply amazed by his reflection. You could be a dogmatician, or you could comprehend the entire corpus of knowledge—and, of course, he still amazed those who were attuned to see just a “simpleton-fool” in this old monk. In fact, he came from a large, poor family, but internally he acquired a lot. Elder Gregory was quite authoritative among the Athonite abbots. Not every abbot on Athos has such weight. And it’s not just about any “table of ranks.”

I’ll tell you a story that happened with me personally. I call it a miracle because I have no other explanation for what happened. Some time ago, knowing that I regularly go to Holy Mount Athos, Vladyka Jonah (Cherepanov), the abbot of St. Jonas Monastery in Kiev, not yet a bishop then but an archimandrite, called me and said, “If you’re going to Athos soon and you don’t have very many things, then could you take a small package for Fr. Gregory in Dochariou Monastery?”

“What is it?”

“Just some stuff,” he answered. “The Elder ordered something, we fulfilled his order, but we have to get it to him immediately because they’re having a big feast soon, and it’s for the feast… We have to hurry. We’re looking for a way to get it to Athos as soon as possible.”

As soon as I agreed, I was immediately met by a young man (I later learned he is a very talented jeweler, a master of gold work). Then he gave me some packet, not explaining anything. When I got home I unwrapped it, and I was horrified! There, in a special coffer, was a set of liturgical vessels. But not just liturgical vessels—it was a rather large-sized exact copy of the Byzantine chalice and discos that we have in our armory! They were made of silver with gold leaf and decorated with precious and semi-precious stones! I already knew that to export such things you have to gather a huge packet of documents at the Ministry of Culture, and so on. It wasn’t just a silver or gold cross you wear on your neck and pass through customs… I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do! I was supposed to fly the next day. I had my tickets in hand. My bags were packed. Mentally going over the most unpleasant situation I could find myself in, I dialed the number for Dochariou Monastery. Elder Gregory himself picked up the phone. Tangling my words, I tried to explain what awaited me… And suddenly he authoritatively and abruptly interrupted me:

“What are you talking about?! This is complete nonsense! Absurd! We have a feast coming. The feast of the Mother of God. The Mother of God is waiting for these vessels. The Mother of God is waiting for them for the feast. Don’t be afraid—take them and bring them!”

My friends advised me: “Listen, do you have some completely unsightly, old bag or old suitcase?”

I found some cloth suitcase with a zipper from my childhood, with which earlier, in the distant Soviet past, children would go to the Pioneers’ camps. Thank God, the coffer fit there as if it had been made for it. But still, to be honest, I went to the airport not without some trepidation. “The elder blessed, I have to take it,” was all I could repeat to myself to calm myself. And what happened?

Somehow, miraculously, the customs officials in Moscow didn’t see anything. The same thing happened in Greece. I put my suitcase on the belt, and it was like someone closed their eyes to them at that moment. I realize it was something incredible that happened only by the Elder’s prayers. I flew to Dochariou as if on wings. I gave the package to Elder Gregory. He immediately took me into the altar and showed me the church that was already ready for the feast day Liturgy, and, placing these necessary liturgical vessels on the altar, he said contentedly, “The final touch! We made it!”

And turning to me, he said, “For your courage, for your boldness, that you obeyed my blessing, you’ll be recorded in the eternal commemorations in our monastery! We will remember you every day when we serve Liturgy.”

A greater joy can’t even be imagined! And then, as if to bring me down from Heaven to Earth, the elder clarified one point in his characteristic playful manner: “Only, please, when you die, don’t forget to tell us so we can commemorate you with the reposed!”

This whole story quite precisely characterizes the Elder.

Fr. Gregory was already very sick in recent times: diabetes, insulin dependence… And not long ago we learned with horror that during reconstruction, the elder suddenly found himself alone and fell into a construction pit. He survived only by some miracle, having received, of course, fractures and bruises. We thought the elder, at such an advanced age, with a whole bouquet of serious diseases, would not survive. But the Lord revealed a miracle and returned the Elder to us for some time.

The Elder was in an incredible rush to finish all the work on the beautification of the monastery. People who have been to Dochariou were amazed at the speed with which the wondrous changes were taking place:

“How?! How could the monastery rise from the ruins and be so transformed in such a short time?!” even the most restrained gentlemen would exclaim.

Besides the monastery itself, the Elder took care for the beautification of the monastery territory, building there some free-standing kathismas and hesychasterions, as they’re called on Mt. Athos—cells where monks can prayerfully retire for some time. When asked: “Why’d you do that? We don’t have so many brothers, and the monastery is huge… Who’d you build all of this for?” the Elder would answer in his characteristic way, with a cunning squint: “You don’t know yet that I will die soon, and Athos will fill up with monks. There will come a time when there won’t be enough monasteries to accept everyone who wants to labor here.” Apparently, something was revealed to him.

I would still like to at least hit upon the main thing that I believe is necessary to say. Many remember now the Elder’s sacrificial love, his fiery faith, and so on. I would like to especially emphasize his quality that struck me the most. By his life he embodied the words of the Apostle Paul from his Epistle to the Corinthians: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Cor. 1:19-20). The Elder was a Fool-for-Christ. Everyone who knew him or at least spoke with him can testify to it. But it was not an ostentatious “foolishness,” as some clergy or monks love to play the part of an elder, of some fool, to add a certain “spiritual” flare to themselves. No, it was foolishness, as they say, speaking impartially. This foolishness is akin to the foolishness of preaching (1 Cor. 1:21) of the ancient saints, who directly denounced those in power, and, regardless of rank, could give them quite a dressing-down. Such nearly patericon-like sessions of shock therapy in Dochariou were practiced constantly by its abbot. They were very sudden turns of spiritual experience for those who just a few minutes ago had been complacently contemplating this kind, smiling, grandfather, wandering, seemingly with embracing arms reaching for them, and even affectionate and courteous with animals along the way… And then, BAM! The cancerous tumor is cut out of your, as you thought, beautiful soul as with a scalpel without anesthesia. I saw this virtuosic operation many times!

To not go unsubstantiated, I will tell you a couple of stories. They are far from being the most eccentric healings (some of them I don’t dare make public). One time I took a really close friend with me to Mt. Athos. Before that he’d already visited, as secular people say, the “centers of spiritual power”: in Tibet, in some ashram in India, and so on. “So why not add Athos to our piggy bank…” is probably how he reasoned about it, but here the story begins…

Incidentally, he didn’t immediately agree to go to Holy Mount Athos, having guessed that you don’t return from there as you were when you went… I took him to Elder Gregory. And I’ll tell you, my friend smoked almost from adolescence, and a lot, and rather strong and expensive cigarettes. I knew it, and I also knew that Elder Gregory was a relentless fighter against this passion—tobacco smoking—but what happened, having introduced them, I couldn’t even imagine… Suddenly I saw the Elder was already taking a solid step towards my friend…

“Do you have any cigarettes?” he asked him.

He immediately obediently pulled an already started pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to the curious Elder. Dochariou pilgrims know how many packs are left right there in the church, at the She Who is Quick to Hear Icon of the Mother of God, by those who have been healed from this addiction. “And here,” I thought, “the Elder has added to his collection,” but I hadn’t even managed to formulate this thought to the end when I suddenly heard the sound of a hearty slap!

“That’s it, you won’t have any more cigarettes,” declared the Elder to him whom he so unexpectedly “thanked” for the already-opened pack.

“Crazy grandpa,” he said, inwardly smirking, with a carton of elegant cigarettes still in his self-indulgent, luxurious suitcase… Finding himself with them again in private, he took out a cigarette, tried to smoke it, and couldn’t understand what was happening: His head was spinning and he started to feel some bad nausea. He tossed the cigarette and took another—the same thing happened! He persisted, and he threw up! He didn’t even try to smoke anymore, although before that he had been a chain smoker for more than thirty years!

Yes, the Elder was harsh, but it was the necessary measure of an experienced doctor who sees all the perniciousness consuming the sick person and understands there is no other way to act.

The Elder wasn’t hard-hitting just in relation to visitors. Once the famous Vatopedi Monastery did something unheard of for Holy Mount Athos—they set up something like a checkpoint halfway to the monastery. It was a gate with guards who checked for a reservation, that is, permission to visit Vatopedi in particular (despite the fact that they were still issuing general admission to enter all the monasteries then). It is clear that Vatopedi took this measure out of necessity, wanting to somehow regulate the flow of visitors, so everyone had a place to stay and would be fed… But no Athonite monastery has ever permitted anything like this… So when Elder Gregory heard about it, he ironically asked, “So they set up a gate? Aha… And they set up a cash register too, right? What, do they give out receipts, too?”

Greater derision, in the context of the whole Athonite tradition and the opposition of Athonites to the imposed European Union norms, cannot be imagined.

Thus, by one biting phrase, he gave to understand that it’s not always necessary to implement on Athos what has been adopted in the “progressive,” servile world. It can serve as a temptation, which, in fact, did happen. In the end, Vatopedi itself was not happy with its innovation. The voice of the Elder is a voice of reproof given to our age, by which the chosen prophets used to knock the filth from society as with a whip.

Elder Gregory had the gift of clairvoyance. There were things he had mysteriously foretold. I have no doubt about that. All of us who knew the Elder and consider ourselves his admirers mourn his passing in a human way, but at the same time we know that the Lord in Heaven has revealed a new intercessor, a mediator for us all.

Let us, especially in these days when his soul is still bidding farewell to the world, pray for the newly-reposed Schema-Archimandrite Gregory.

By Maxim Klimenko

Source: http://orthochristian.com/116922.html

The Satan seized Judas and taught him how to betray the Lord; Judas agreed and betrayed Jesus. The Satan entered Judas’s heart because the door was open. Our innermost is always locked; even the Lord always stands at the door and knocks. What is the key that unlocks that door? It’s affinity, inclination, and kinship. A person whose heart is inclined towards the Satan, opens his door for the Satan; a person whose heart is predisposed towards the Lord, opens his door for the Lord. The fact that it’s the Satan and not the Lord that enters your heart is your own fault. Don’t allow thoughts that please the Satan. Don’t listen to them. Don’t act on them. Don’t agree with them. The Satan will wander to and fro, and finally leave you alone. He doesn’t have any power over anyone. If he seizes a person, that’s only because that person yields to him.

Thoughts are the root of all evil. Don’t tolerate bad thoughts; that’s how you can effectively lock the door of your heart for the Satan. If you encounter bad thoughts, don’t worry: there isn’t anyone in this world who doesn’t, and it’s not a sin to actually have these thoughts. Drive them away, and that’s that; if they come again, drive them away again. Repeat when necessary. If you allow those thoughts to take root in your heart and begin to entertain them, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you’ll gradually feel affinity with them. That will make them even stickier. Affinity will bring about bad intentions to do something bad. Those intentions, which aren’t defined yet, will mold into a certain shape and present a choice, agreement, and decision. That’s how a sin is committed!

The door of one’s heart is swung open. As soon as one agrees to sin, the Satan jumps in and starts to boss that person around. The poor soul is like a slave or as a beast of burden: it is driven to exhaustion doing obscene actions. If only that soul didn’t tolerate the bad thoughts from the start! Things would have worked out differently.

By St. Theophan the Recluse

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://azbyka.ru/days/2018-12-21

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.

Myrrh still flows from his body. On the two annual feasts of Saint Nicholas (December 6 and May 9, the day of his “translation” to Bari) a priest opens his tomb and gathers myrrh, which is then distributed… for a price. His body, I read, is still in fairly good condition for a man 13 centuries old. Some years ago the Roman Catholic Church felt compelled to have a scientific analysis. (I think we Orthodox wouldn’t do that. We have hundreds of weeping icons whose myrrh has never seen the inside of a chem lab.) They discovered that the “myrrh”, whatever it is, has little or no bacterial content. Small relics of Saint Nicholas are also distributed through the world, one of which is encased in the altar of our Saint Nicholas Church. Thus we who live 5000 miles and 17 centuries removed from the time of Bishop Nicholas have a physical connection with our patron.

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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