Monday, December 31, 2012

History Of Saint Nicholas Aka Santa Claus


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·         Saint “Nicholas’s existence is not attested by any historical document, so nothing certain is known of his life except that he was probably bishop of Myra in the 4th century”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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