The Real Santa Claus - Part 2

When Myra passed into the hands of the Saracens, some saw it as an opportunity to move the saint's relics to a more hospitable location. There was great competition for the relics between Venice and Bari. The Barese won the race and the relics were carried off under the noses of the Grecian custodians (Nicholas was Greek), the Saracens, and the Venetians. Legend has it that this race was pretty intense and resulted in the body of Nicholas losing an arm along the way. The Venetians could not go home empty handed however and managed to return to Venice with the relics of the Apostle Mark and the resulting edifice to house his remains is St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. On May 9, 1087, the relics of Nicholas were safely landed at Bari. A new church was built to shelter Nicholas' remains and in the form of St Nicholas’ Basilica.


St Nicholas is popular and he's said to have been represented by medieval artists more frequently than any saint but Mary, and nearly 400 churches were dedicated in his honor in England alone during the late Middle Ages.

He is the patron saint of children and probably from this the custom arose of giving gifts to children in the name of Saint Nicholas on his feast day, December 6. The Dutch actually exchange gifts on the eve of this day, December 5. It was them that called him Sint Nicolaas, or more commonly Sinterklaas and it was this name and idea that has transferred into our modern day Santa Claus.

On Saint Nicholas Day it is traditional for the clergy of the basilica in Bari to lower a flask into the tomb of Saint Nicholas to extract some of the myrrh which is believed to exude from the relics. Containers of this myrrh are sent all over the world, and believers have reported numerous miracles as a result of being anointed with it. This is still collected each year and can be bought at the shop next to the shop for between 500 and 1000 euro a bottle!

From what I understand, St Nicholas is the only Saint shared by the Catholic and Orthodox Church. The Basilica in Bari is in fact a very unusual church in that it is shared by the Catholics and the Orthodox. Every week Orthodox services are conducted in the crypt and on Sundays Catholics have their services in the main area. The church and the city is a connecting point between the catholic and Orthodox churches with many pilgrims coming from the east and the west. In May a statue of St Nicholas is paraded around the city as a celebration of the arrival of the relics.

An interesting thing to note form all of the images of St Nicholas is that he is generally portrayed as having very dark skin. The central top image below shows a reconstruction by scientists of what Nicholas looked like.

This is a far cry of course from our images of Santa Claus today.

The Real Santa Claus - Part 1

Saint Nicholas is the man behind the legend of Santa Claus. Historically speaking there's not much we really know about Nicholas, despite him being one of the most popular saints in the Catholic and Orthodox churches and being popularized by the idea of Santa Claus. We do know that he was probably the bishop of Myra (near modern Finike, Turkey) sometime in the 300s.



Nicholas was born sometime around AD 280 in Lycia to wealthy, Christian parents. A lot of Nicholas’ life is surrounded by legend and myth. It is said that when he was still a boy, Nicholas’ parents died in a plague, leaving him with great wealth. He used this wealth for charitable work. His uncle, the Bishop of Patura, became his guardian and ensured his education in the church and Nicholas became a priest at a very young age.

Once, while traveling by sea to Jerusalem, a storm threatened the safety of Nicholas and the ship’s crew. Legend has it that Nicholas prayed to God and immediately the storm was calmed. Upon returning from that trip, he visited a church in Myra. A priest was outside the church waiting. When Nicholas arrived, the priest asked his name. As Nicholas answered, the priest began praising God. He explained that God had told him to wait outside the church and the next person to come by, named Nicholas, would be the new Bishop of Myra. While Nicholas at first humbly refused, he eventually became their Bishop. Because of his young age he was called the Boy Bishop.


Tombs and Ampitheatre in Myra, Turkey

One popular story about Nicholas is that of a man with three daughters. The man was poor and could not afford dowries for his girls. At the time, this meant they would have to succumb to a life of prostitution. Hearing this, Nicholas dropped a bag of gold down the chimney (or, according to some, threw it in the window) on the night before each girl needed a dowry for marriage. One story says the last bag of gold Nick threw in landed in a sock, hanging to dry above the fireplace. Sound familiar? Another version of the story tells of Nicholas’ request to remain anonymous until after his death. It was these types of stories that helped develop St Nicholas into the images we have of him today.


Under the persecution of Diocletian and Maximillian Nicholas was imprisoned.

During his life it is suggested that he had an important role to play in the development of Christianity. When Constantine became emperor, Nicholas was released with countless others and returned to his preaching only to find a new threat: Arianism. According to one biographer (writing five centuries after Nicholas's death), "Thanks to the teaching of St. Nicholas, the metropolis of Myra alone was untouched by the filth of the Arian heresy, which it firmly rejected as a death-dealing poison." Other biographers claim Nicholas was involved in the Council of Nicea and was a key spokesperson against the heresy. However Nicholas isn't mentioned in the records of the meeting.

Wherever the truth lays, between legend and fact, Nicholas, Bishop of Myra was an inspirational figure for the church. By the reign of Justinian (d. 565), Nicholas was famous, and the emperor dedicated a church in Constantinople to him. By the 900s, a Greek wrote, "The West as well as the East acclaims and glorifies him. Wherever there are people, his name is revered and churches are built in his honor. All Christians reverence his memory and call upon his protection." The West became even more interested when his "relics" (that is his decayed remains) were taken from Myra to Bari, Italy, on May 9, 1087.

Bari is where we live, and tomorrow I will explain a bit more about his influence on the church, and the development of the modern Santa Claus.