St. Nicholas

When the myth outshines its origin. (The Bus 4.26)

Dec 21, 2023

Welcome aboard The Bus!

The Stop

St. Nicholas of Myra (270-343), was an early Christian bishop born in Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. In the centuries following his death, he became one of the ‘most popular minor saints’ in both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Today, as the result of a remarkable transformation of reality into myth, he is so closely associated with Christmas that, in his guise as Santa Claus, he’s for many more important than the figure who gave the holiday its name.1

Santa’s parish - just next to ours. Photo: Bryan Padrick 19.12.23

There are no historical documents about Nicholas, so little is known about his life with the exception that he was probably Bishop of Myra2 in the 4th century CE. According to tradition, he was ‘imprisoned and likely tortured’ during the Roman emperor Diocletian’s vicious persecutions of early Christians, but was released under the rule of Constantine the Great - the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Further tradition claims that he might have attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325, at which numerous church beliefs were settled and eventually expressed in what would become known as the Nicene Creed. He was buried in his church at Myra, and his shrine quickly became a popular pilgrimage destination. He was officially canonised by the Roman Catholic Church as a saint in 1454, but he was actually recognised as one long before: within 200 years of his death, Nicholas was recognised and honoured in ways generally reserved for saints, and in the 6th Century CE, the Emperor Justinian I built a church in his honour in Constantinople.

Stories about Nicholas’s reputed ‘generosity and kindness’ developed over time into full-blown legends of his miracles performed for the ‘poor and unhappy.’ One story told how he paid the marriage dowries in gold for three young women whose poverty would have otherwise forced them into lives of prostitution. Still another told about the time he ‘restored to life’ three young children who had been chopped to pieces by a butcher and stored in a tub of brine. These and other miracles became a ‘favourite subject’ for medieval artists, and throughout the Middle Ages devotion to Nicholas spread to all parts of Europe. Over the years he became the patron saint of Russia and Greece; of ‘charitable fraternities and guilds; of children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers;’ and of many cities, including Moscow.

When the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s ‘turned away’ from recognising and honouring (much less praying to) saints, devotion to Nicholas disappeared in every European Protestant country except Holland. The Dutch continued to celebrate his 6 December feast day - a celebration marked by children putting out their shoes the night before and awaking to discover the gifts St Nicholas had left for them. This practice - and its legend - was carried to America by Dutch immigrants in the early 17th century, where they referred to the saint they called Sint Nikolaas by his nickname: Sinterklass. Or, as it became known by the English-speaking majority, Santa Claus. The rest, of course, is history.

The Detour

Today’s Detour is to a short (3:51) video by FIZZ3 performing a couple of weeks ago at one of BBC Radio One’s Piano Sessions. It’s a medley of Christmas songs, beautifully sung with - most importantly, I feel - the appropriate amount of melancholy inherent to this holiday. After all, Christmas might be all about silver and gold and joy to the world - but only in the face of nostalgia, bygones and loss.

FIZZ: Christmas Medley (BBC Radio One)

The Recommendation

Today’s Recommendation is Ted Lasso (2020-2023). The entire series is brilliant - the fish-out-of-water story of an American football coach recruited to manage an English football (soccer) team is one I suggest checking out in full. However, the episode I’m recommending today is Season 2, Episode 4 - ‘Carol of the Bells’. This is one of the best Christmas-themed episodes of any show I’ve watched, and at my age - along with both possessing a healthy love for this holiday and the requisite forgiveness for narrative tat - that’s saying a lot. If you’ve not seen the show, the episode won't mean as much, but if you have I think you’ll agree - and that’s even before trying to identify the knowing references to so many Christmas films and shows.

At the moment, Ted Lasso only streams on Apple TV, but you can see a bit of the Christmas episode here: Christmas at the Higgenses (Ted Lasso, 2.4).

The Sounds

Today’s playlist is a selection of five great ‘folksy’ Christmas-themed tracks (and yes, there’s a Jethro Tull one in there): ‘I Saw Three Ships’ (Dan Fogelberg, 1999), ‘Gaudete’ (Steeleye Span, 1972), ‘Song for a Winter’s Night’ (Gordon Lightfoot, 1967), ‘Pavane’ (Jethro Tull, 2003) and ‘Love for Christmas’ (Carole King, 2001). Enjoy!

The Thought

Today’s Thought is from J. R. R. Tolkien, who, in a letter to his son, Michael, kind of sums it all up:4

‘Well here comes Christmas! That astonishing thing that no ‘commercialism’ can in fact defile - unless you let it.’

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

The Bus