Happy St. Nicholas

Before he became Santa Claus, St. Nicholas was a beloved bishop in part of what is now Turkey, who died on this date in 346. Stories of his generosity abounded, and so he became a special patron of the poor, of children and of all in need.

The most famous story, of course, is this:

A poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment would have to become prostitutes. Hearing of the poor man's plight, Nicholas decided to help him but being too modest to help the man in public, (or to save the man the humiliation of accepting charity), he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses (one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the man's house. One version has him throwing one purse for three consecutive nights. Another has him throw the purses over a period of three years, each time the night before one of the daughters comes "of age". Invariably, the third time the father lies in wait, trying to discover the identity of their benefactor. 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. For his help to the poor, Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers; the three gold balls traditionally hung outside a pawnshop symbolize the three sacks of gold. People then began to suspect that he was behind a large number of other anonymous gifts to the poor, using the inheritance from his wealthy parents. After he died, people in the region continued to give to the poor anonymously, and such gifts were still often attributed to St. Nicholas.

The body of St. Nicholas is kept in the southern Italian city of Bari. He is so popular in Russia that there is a saying, "If God dies, we'll still have St. Nicholas." Not too sound as theology, admittedly!

This feast day is often celebrated in parts of Europe as a sort of little Christmas, and since the Carmelite community I belonged to came from Bavaria, we kept the custom. The year I was chaplain for the nuns in Rhode Island, I cooked a special dinner for the nuns for this feast and made each one a small origami stocking filled with little candies and gifts.