Today, the Church remembers St. Nicholas, a bishop of the early Christian Church in Asia Minor.
Yes, there really is a St. Nicholas. Quite a lot about his life is known, including his time spent as a monk in the Holy Land, his generosity to those marginalized by their culture or circumstance, and his participation in the formulation of the orthodox/Catholic way of expressing Christian truths. It is known that he suffered torture and imprisonment during the persecution of the early Christians under the Emperor Diocletian.
Nicholas is famed as a bearer of gifts to children, his name was brought to America by the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam (later New York), from whom he is popularly known as Santa Claus.
Nicholas was born in Asia Minor (Greek Anatolia in present-day Turkey) in the Roman Empire, to a Greek family during the third century in the city of Patara (Lycia et Pamphylia), a port on the Mediterranean Sea. He lived in Myra, Lycia, at a time when the region was Greek in its heritage, culture, and outlook and politically part of the Roman diocese of Asia.
In 325, he was one of many bishops to answer the request of Constantine and appear at the First Council of Nicaea; the 151st attendee was listed as "Nicholas of Myra of Lycia". There, Nicholas was a staunch defender of the Orthodox Christian position, and one of the bishops who signed the Nicene Creed.
In his most famous exploit, Nicholas aided a poor man who 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. Even if they did not, unmarried women in those days would be assumed to be prostitutes. Hearing of the girls' plight, Nicholas decided to help them, but being too modest to help the family in public (or to save them the humiliation of accepting charity), he went to the house under the cover of night and threw three purses (one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the house.
It is from this that the tradition of placing gifts in stockings hung out to dry, or in shoes set by the fireplace to dry, comes down to us today.
Fr. Troy Beecham
