Hiding just behind many of the holidays on our calendars are the lives of ancient followers of Jesus. We toss their names around without the faintest idea of how they lived, what they sacrificed, and how their faith sent shockwaves through time. This year, we’re doing something about that. The Holy Behind the Holiday is an ongoing series looking back at some prominent figures from the history of the Church and what their lives can still teach us today. Check out the first two installments here and here.
Sure, your Santa might employ some elves, travel by flying reindeer, and deliver gifts through chimneys… but can he rescue girls from prostitution, endure years of torture, and floor a heretic with a swift right hook? You bet your Christmas cookies he can.
Saint Nicholas, the man who would become Santa Claus, did all that—and more. Even after the movie credits roll, the presents are unwrapped, and the twinkling lights are turned off, his legend continues to grow and inspire.
This is the story of (sometimes jolly) old Saint Nicholas.
Before we begin, a small caveat. Historically, we know very little about Nicholas, except that he served as the bishop of Myra, an important port city on the Mediterranean Sea in modern-day Turkey. Living some 300 years after the birth of Christ, during a time of extreme turbulence in the Roman Empire, if Nicholas left behind any writings of his own, they have all been lost. And yet his stories have survived for millennia, passed from one generation to the next as testaments of the power of love, generosity, and a life fully surrendered to Christ.
Where does history end and legend begin? We can’t be sure. But even Kris Kringle doesn’t have anything to rival the tales of Old Saint Nick. Here are three of my favorites.
DOWN THROUGH THE CHIMNEY WITH OLD SAINT NICK
Nicholas was born in Patara, a coastal city in southern Turkey. His parents were wealthy business leaders, converts to a minority (but growing) faith that was spreading across the globe. They were Christians. Nicholas was raised in the faith, and by all accounts, enjoyed a privileged childhood. But as a young man, that would all come to a screeching halt.
Around the age of 18, both of Nicholas’ parents died in a plague outbreak. Inspired by an uncle, who was part of a nearby monastery, Nicholas decided to enter religious service. Step one was giving away all of his worldly possessions, including the fortune he had just inherited.
Elsewhere In Patara, there was a widower facing an unthinkable choice. Though wildly successful earlier in life, he had been dealt one blow after another. Alone, too old to work, and penniless, he faced the grueling choice of what to do with his three beloved daughters.
Living at a time when doweries were paid to grooms to seal proposals, the man’s daughters had no hope for marriage. Rather than allow them to starve to death, the old man considered selling them into slavery. At least then, they would have meals and a place to lay their head at night, though he cowered to think that their future owners might exploit their young bodies for the worst ends.
One morning, after praying to God for a miracle, the old man awoke to find a bag of gold had been thrown through his window during the night. It was enough money for his first daughter to be married, and to support the family for the time being. The man wept for joy, and secured his daughter in a loving marriage.
As the money ran short, and the second daughter came of age, the old man dared to hope for a second miracle. He again asked God to provide. And again, he awoke to find a bag of gold flung through his window in the dead of night. Prayers of gratitude were offered, and a second wedding was planned.
When the time came for the third daughter to marry, the old man no longer doubted. Instead, he hatched a plan. Wanting to properly thank whoever was supporting their family, he stayed up late into night, hoping to catch the gift-giver. This time, instead of the bag of gold coming through the window, he was surprised to find it falling through their chimney and landing in a sock that had been hung to dry over the fire.
The old man rushed out of the house and caught the young man climbing down from his roof. It had been Nicholas all along. The old man fell at his feet, sobbing and thanking Nicholas for having mercy on his family. Nicholas raised the old man to his feet, explaining that every good gift comes from God. He should be the true object of the family’s affection and gratitude.
As Nicholas’ fame grew, so did the tales of his radical generosity—and not just with finances. One tale finds him miraculously securing grain for his hometown as it experienced the ravages of famine, while another has him stepping in front of an executioner’s blade to stop an unjust, politically motivated murder.
First and foremost, Nicholas was a man of generosity, who dared to offer all he had to those who needed it most…even the kids on the naughty list.
IT WAS CHRISTMAS, IN PRISON, AND THE FOOD WAS (NOT) REAL GOOD
Nicholas rose through the ranks of his monastery, and on a visit to the nearby town of Myra (about 50 miles from where he was born), he was asked to become bishop of the sizable congregation located there. Nicholas served well, making generosity to the poor and the hurting a keystone of his leadership. But being well-loved by the locals didn’t endear him to the Emperor.
While each leader of Rome handled the Christians differently, a new reign of terror and persecution fell on the faith with the rise of Emperor Diocletian. Seeing the “new atheism” of Christianity as a threat to his power—the believers refused to recognize the divinity of the Emperor or worship the old Roman gods—Diocletian turned the screws. Hard.
Diocletian’s First Edict ordered the destruction of Christian churches, the burning of scriptures, and the banning of Christian worship and gatherings. When this didn’t fully suppress the faith, he issued further edicts that required the imprisonment of all Christian clergy and made sacrifices to Roman gods obligatory. Those who refused faced imprisonment, torture, or even death. Diocletian employed really jolly ways of putting down the faithful, like burning them alive, hanging them on crosses, or feeding them to wild animals in the arena.
Despite the pressure, Nicholas wouldn’t crack. Utterly refusing to compromise his faith, or bend a worshipful knee to this crazed emperor, our favorite saint was rounded up by Roman soldiers and taken to jail. It’s highly likely Nicholas spent up to a decade behind bars. He would have lived in squalid conditions, regularly experienced hunger and thirst, and endured what must have felt like endless torture. Nicholas had the power to stop it at any moment. All he had to do was recant his faith and sacrifice to the emperor. But the man of generosity was also a man of grit. He wouldn’t budge.
Then, in 313 AD, a miracle. Roman soldiers walked into the jail cell and set Nicholas free. A new emperor, Constantine, had come to the throne. His Edict of Milan officially ended the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Just like that, the nightmare was over. Nicholas had outlasted it. And as a result, his faith was ironclad.
MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON’T WANNA FIGHT TONIGHT)
Life under Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, was much different. No longer fearing persecution, imprisonment, or death, Nicholas went back to his post at Myra and sought to be a blessing to his community.
He did this quietly for a decade, before being called to join other prominent church leaders at Nicea, a town in northern Turkey. Recognizing the need to iron out the fundamentals of the faith, especially as Christianity experienced such rapid growth, the Council of Nicea was convened to answer basic questions like “What do Christians believe?” and “What are the non-negotiables of the faith?”
At the center of the two months of meetings was a man named Arius. A theologian and priest from Egypt, Arius taught that God had created Jesus—thus, Jesus wasn’t eternal and was not as divine as God the Father. Creating deep rifts in the early church community, Arius’ teaching was threatening to tear the whole thing apart.
Debates about the divinity of Christ raged back and forth for days, with Arius and his followers present to argue their perspectives. It was during one of his long diatribes that Nicholas finally reached his breaking point. With no one able to wrangle Arius, Nicholas stood up, calmly walked toward the preaching heretic… and punched him right in the mouth.
Chaos broke out, and eventually, Nicholas was escorted out of the meeting. In those days, it was against the law to perform acts of violence in front of the Emperor, who was also in attendance. Nicholas’ position on the council, and as bishop, were suspended.
Nicholas might have lost the battle, but he won the war. At the conclusion of the meetings, Arius was deemed a heretic, and the divinity of Jesus was enshrined in the church’s first official statement of faith, the Nicene Creed. As Nicholas set to return home to Myra, he was given the news he most wanted to hear: he had been reinstated as a bishop with no further disciplinary action needed.
Nicholas wasn’t just a benevolent gift-giver, or a man of grit who endured long hardships. He also carried with him the gumption to stand up for what was right—even if it meant going toe-to-toe with a heretic or two. And you thought getting coal in your stocking was the worst thing St. Nick had up his sleeve!
WHY ST. NICK STILL MATTERS
As Nicholas aged, his temper cooled. As far as we know, he didn’t get into any more fistfights. Instead, the legends say he turned his time and attention more and more to the youngest believers in his church. In children, he found the faith, belief, and trust that Jesus himself said was required to follow after him.
It’s easy to see how, over years and years, and re-telling after re-telling, the old bishop slowly transformed into the jolly, north-pole-loving gift-giver of Christmas we know today.
Whether Santa is part of your Christmas celebrations or not, I think Saint Nicholas should be. For me, his generosity is a counterweight to the blatant consumerism we all experience (and fall under the spell of, from time to time) during the holiday season. His girt, and endurance to suffer well for the cause of Christ, rubs against our belief that life should be easy—that if things get hard, something must be going wrong. And his gumption to stand up for what is right, to fight if necessary, is a splash of cold water that reminds us the future never belongs to the passive.
To me, Nicholas is an inspiration and a model. But he’s not superhuman. It’s tempting to write him off simply because he gets the moniker “saint’ before his first name, but scripture is clear: if you are following Jesus, you’re a saint too. That’s why Paul can begin his letter to the church at Corinth this way:
“To those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:2)
If we’re saints, that means we can be just as generous as Nicholas; we can emulate his grit when life feels torturous; and we can borrow on his gumption when we feel up against the wall. Most of all, we can have lives of profound impact if we just keep saying “yes” to the next thing God puts in front of us—just like jolly old Saint Nick did.
Who knows, a couple millennia from now, maybe some kids will be singing Christmas carols about you? But even if that doesn’t happen, when you live this way, you’ll know you lived like a saint.
And I’m pretty sure, as far as gifts go, a life spent betting on God is the best one we can give the generations coming after us. Even if you can’t wrap it up and put it under the tree.
Sources:
Stories of the Saints, Carey Wallace, Workman Publishing, 2018 The True Saint Nicholas, William J. Bennett, Simon & Schuster, 2009
Disclaimer: This article is 100% human-generated.
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