“Ho! Ho! Ho!
Merry Christmas!” “Santa Claus is
coming to town!” “Jolly old St.
Nicholas, lean your ear this way….” All
of these are familiar to us this time of year, but few know about the real
Santa Claus, St. Nicholas of Myra. St.
Nicholas was a bishop of Myra, located in present-day Demre, Turkey in the
fourth century. He was a participant in
the Council of Nicea, which declared that Jesus is consubstantial with God the
Father, as we recite every week in mass.
However, he has become more known as Santa Claus through the
efforts of Clement C. Moore’s “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” and the Dutch
name for St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas. The reasons for St. Nicholas’s transformation
do indeed come from legends about the real St. Nicholas. One legend has him throwing three bags of coins
into the house of a poor man with three daughters to allow them to be
marriageable. He was also known as a
“wonder-worker” due to miracles attributed to him. Nonetheless, he has become the patron saint
of children and is one of the few saints that are greatly venerated in both
Eastern and Western churches.
Is there a Santa Claus?
If you mean a person who lives at the North Pole with elves and magical
flying reindeer, only in the hearts of children and the child-like. He is a representative of the spirit of gift-giving,
which is a good thing. But is there a
St. Nicholas? Absolutely! He is one who loved Jesus while on earth and
is alive in heaven singing praises to God.
He is more than a spirit of giving; he is one who gave himself to others
because of his love for Jesus. We too,
can be modern-day Santa Claus’s as well as St. Nicholas’s.
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