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| A 2008 Forensic Model From Skeletal Remains |
On a beautiful late spring day in 1087 a ship sailed into
the port town of Bari in the southern part of Italy with a very precious cargo. Just weeks before the ship had been in the
port of Myra (modern day Finike, Turkey) on a special mission: to bring the
bones of St. Nicholas to the safety of Europe.
For centuries, Christians had traveled to his shrine in Turkey because a
clear, sweet smelling liquid dripped from the tomb that seemed to have
miraculous powers. In fact, in the Greek
world, St. Nicholas is known as Nicholas the wonder-worker. The taking of this holy man’s bones was seen
as a necessity for 16 years before the Muslim Turks had conquered much of Asia Minor
and were making things more and more difficult for Christian pilgrims; so much
so that 6 years later the Pope would be calling the men of Western Europe to
arms in the First Crusade. But for now,
it was time celebrate. A new shrine for
St. Nicholas was constructed on Italian soil and soon his blessings would draw
flocks of pilgrims from all over Europe during the Middle Ages even as his new
tomb still seemed to produce the same miraculous perfume like water it did in
Asia Minor.
While Santa Claus is the delight of children the world over
during the Christmas holidays, the man behind the myth is just as delightful
which is why in the Christian world, St. Nicholas of Myra is second only to the
Virgin Mary as the most artistically depicted saint and a popular namesake for
church buildings especially in Europe and Russia.
St Nicholas (270-343 AD) was born to devoutly Christian
parents by the name of Epiphanius and Johanna in Asia Minor. They both died in an epidemic when Nicholas
was quite young and he was raised by his uncle (also named Nicholas) who was a
clergyman. Although Nicholas inherited
his family wealth, he was raised to become a clergyman and even as a young man
was known for his piety and generosity.
When the bishop of Myra died, Nicholas was elected to take
his place by popular acclaim. By
tradition Nicholas would have been between 30 and 40 by this time, but it is
quite possible that he was younger as his early adult years were lived during
the Roman persecution of the Church and church leaders were regularly killed
leaving churches often scrambling to find new leaders. When St. Nicholas is depicted in art it is
always as an elderly man with gray hair.
This was considered an outstanding feature in those days because unlike
most of his contemporaries, Nicholas had the privilege of dying of old age
rather than martyrdom. As bishop,
Nicholas didn’t live a trouble free life.
In fact, when Constantine the Great (the first Christian Roman Emperor)
came to power, Nicholas was still in prison for his faith and was soon set free.
One of the most
famous stories of St.Nicholas was his
intervention to help a man in poverty who had three fully grown daughters. Unable to raise a dowry so that they could be
married, out of desperation he was thinking about turning them over to
prostitution (a sad fate that still happens to poor women today). When Nicholas heard of his straits he came by
this man’s house at night and threw a bag of gold coins, enough for a dowry,
through a window and left undetected.
Shortly afterward the oldest daughter was engaged and married. Nicholas came and did this for the other
daughters but with the last one the father discovered Nicholas was his benefactor
and profusely thanked him and made the story known. Often Nicholas is
depicted with three bags, which are the bags for the gold coins. Another symbol used in iconography is three
gold balls which incidentally were adopted by pawnbrokers as their symbol. It probably shouldn’t surprise that Nicholas
is the patron saint of among other things pawn brokers, which to my thinking
makes Christmas shopping at a pawn shop seem a bit more kosher for some reason.
It is said that Nicholas was an ardent protector of the
church’s orthodoxy (which is the role of a bishop) and was at the famous
Council of Nicea in 325 AD where the heresy of Arianism was being tried by the
Church. As the legend goes, in his zeal
for the truth Nicholas punched Arius in the mouth when he began to defend his
false doctrine that Jesus was not the eternal
Son of God (obviously proving that Nicholas must have had Southern Baptist
leanings as those guys are famous for fisticuffs at board meetings!). Such actions in front of the Emperor
Constantine (who was present at the time) were against the law and Nicholas was
put in jail for a few days to cool his temper at the behest of his fellow
bishops who were outraged at his behavior.
But this is more in the realm of legend as it appears in no contemporary
accounts of the council and there is little reason to belief Constantine’s
bodyguards would have even tolerated such actions. But it is fun to imagine our dear St.
Nicholas punching the lights out of a heretic nonetheless.
Many other stories abound of miracles and good deeds done to
children and the less fortunate that space will not permit, but do show why he
is the ideal saint for Christmas and why he has been so popular in all the
major branches of Christianity for so long.
Not much is said about his end but that he died in his church, which is
the religious equivalent of “dying with your boots on”.
Protestants, who recognize very few saints, pretty much
abandoned the feast of St. Nicholas on December 6th (which continues
to be celebrated by Catholics and Orthodox) except for the Dutch who continued
to recognize him with their unique pronunciation “Sinterclaas” which came to
America as “Santa Claus”. Martin Luther,
translated the tradition of gift giving on St. Nicholas day to Christmas day
saying that the baby Jesus gave gifts.
The German word for the Christ child “Christkindl” also became corrupted
to Kriss Kringle which again became associated as another name for St.
Nicholas.
Probably the least thought about but most important thing to
remember about St. Nicholas was that his life was about leading and teaching people
in word and deed to follow Jesus Christ to son of God. The person whose birth in Bethlehem we
celebrate every year at Christmas. That
is the central legacy of Saint Nicholas today.
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