Little is really known about the real Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, a town near modern-day Finike, Turkey. He was born in the late-third century and lived until the mid-fourth century. There are no historical documents about his life, but according to tradition, Nicholas was born to a wealthy family in Patara, Lycia (near modern-day Gelemis, Turkey). His parents died tragically in an epidemic, and he inherited a considerable sum of money. He was raised by his uncle who was Bishop of Patara. Even at an early age, Nicholas chose to live a life of abstinence: fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays and devoting his inheritance to works of charity. His uncle mentored him as a reader and later ordained him as a priest.

 

St. Nicholas is commonly associated with gift giving. According to the most popular tradition, a citizen of Patara had lost all his money and needed to support his three daughters who could not find husbands because of their poverty. In those days, if a man could not provide a dowry for his daughter, she would be sold into slavery. Nicholas became informed of this, and took a bag of gold and threw it into an open window of the man's house during the night.  (When the legend was told in places with colder climates, Nicholas was said to have thrown the bags of gold down the chimney, rather than through a window.) The bag landed in one of the stockings hanging by the fire. That provided a dowry for the eldest girl and she soon married. Nicholas did the same for the second daughter. When it came time for the last daughter to marry, the father watched to see who the generous gift-giver was. He recognized his benefactor and overwhelmed Nicholas with gratitude.

Nicholas eventually moved to the nearby city of Myra, which happened to be in need of a bishop at the time. Because of his good works and allegedly after being associated with some miracles, Nicholas was chosen by the people of Myra to be their new bishop. But, not long after, the Roman Emperor Diocletian launched a persecution of Christians and the new bishop was imprisoned and tortured.   When Constantine became emperor, Nicholas was released with countless others and returned to his preaching only to find a new threat: Arianism (the doctrine preached by a an influential priest named Arius, which denied the full divinity of Christ). Nicholas was one of the attendees at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 where he got into an argument with Arius and allegedly punched him in the face. Nicholas died on December 6, 343. He was buried in his episcopal city of Myra, but in the eleventh century, Myra fell into the hands of Muslim invaders and 1087 his remains were transferred to Bari, Italy, where they remain to this day.

 

St. Nicholas has been revered for centuries by Christians in both the East and the West. During the Protestant Reformation, reverence and devotion to him all but disappeared, except in Holland, where he became known as Sinterklaas. Dutch settlers brought their tradition to the New World and it remained as colonists from England dominated the region. English settlers called him Santa Claus. In the rest of the Protestant Europe, the gift-giver was said to be the Christ Child ( Christkindl, in German), which eventually was repronounced as Kris Kringle, ironically now considered to be another name for Santa Claus.

 

Nicholas is also known as the patron saint of children (based on a legend in which he brought back to life three children who had been beheaded by an evil innkeeper and hidden in a tub of brine) and the patron saint of bakers, brides, grooms, Greece, pawnbrokers, and travelers.