Trigger
The Wall Street Journal recently
(12/6/2012) published review
of “The Saint Who Would Be Santa Claus”
a book written by Adam C. English.
Other Sources
According to Encyclopedia
Britannica:
·
Saint “Nicholas’s existence is not attested by
any historical document, so nothing certain is known of his life except that he
was probably bishop of Myra in the 4th century”
·
“Nicholas’s reputation for generosity and
kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and
unhappy.”
·
“He was reputed to have given marriage dowries
of gold to three girls whom poverty would otherwise have forced into lives of
prostitution and to have restored to life three children who had been chopped
up by a butcher and put in a tub of brine.
·
“In the Middle Ages, devotion to Nicholas
extended to all parts of Europe. He became the patron saint of Russia and
Greece; of charitable fraternities and guilds; of children, sailors, unmarried
girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers; and of such cities as Fribourg, in
Switzerland, and Moscow. Thousands of European churches were dedicated to him”
Unfortunately, the Catholic Encyclopedia
does not have much information on him not even why and how he was declared a
saint.
Marriage Dowry
The review tells the story about the marriage dowries as
follows: “Another favorite story, first told by the eighth-century monk Michael
the Archimandrite, concerned a once-wealthy man who lost his fortune and
decided to sell his three daughters into prostitution because he couldn't
provide dowries. Nicholas, whose own parents had left him a large inheritance,
sneaked up to the man's house in the dead of night and threw three bags of gold
through the window, enabling the girls to find respectable husbands. He thus
became the patron saint of spinsters and of pawnbrokers (for whom he became a
"guarantor of payment"); the three balls on pawnshop signs are
stylized versions of Nicholas's bags of gold. … He [author] suggests that the
story of the sisters saved from prostitution plausibly reflects fourth-century
social realities. The practice of destitute or debt-ridden parents selling
their offspring to brothels or slave-traders was so common that the Emperor
Constantine made public funds available to families so that they wouldn't
abandon their children.”.
Wikipedia
adds: “In one version the father confronts the saint, only to have Saint
Nicholas say it is not him he should thank, but God alone. In another version,
Nicholas learns of the poor man's plan and drops the third bag down the chimney
instead; a variant holds that the daughter had washed her stockings that
evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and that the bag of gold fell
into the stocking.”
Other Miracles
From the review we also learn: “The author seeks a
historical basis for other St. Nicholas tales: his miraculous appearance aboard
a foundering ship that guided it to safe harbor (an incident that made him the
patron saint of sailors) and his intercession via a dream that prompted
Constantine to spare the lives of three Roman military officers unjustly
condemned to death.”
A Wealthy Man
Saint Nicholas is being
described as an affluent man: “After his parents had gone to the Lord and left
him much property and an abundance of money and possessions, he reckoned that
he had God as his father.” (Source).
Such miracles only happen when
big government does not confiscate your fortune.
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