Errata for Who is the Historical Santa Claus

After posting my blog entry entitled "Who is the Historical Santa Claus", I've received the following response:

Nice summary--just a few additions--

Nicholas was born in Patara, a town not far to the west of Myra in Lycia, Asia Minor, now Turkey. Not in Italy.

A technical matter--houses in that time did not have chimneys (a common misunderstanding)--there would have been an opening in the roof for the fire.

Nicholas' remains were taken to Bari, Italy, in 1087, where a basilica was built over his crypt. There are many, many towns named for St. Nicholas -- often ports along coasts and rivers as sailors carried stories of him wherever they went. Chapels and churches were named for him, often in ports as Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and seamen, as well as children, maidens, the falsely accused and many others.

For more, see www.stnicholascenter.org

Here's my reply:

Thank you for the information.

The reference that I used is incorrect about St. Nicholas' birth place. I should have check other references.

As for Nicholas' resting place, I dug a little deeper and found that it's a bit more complicated than simply one resting place for St. Nicholas. Everyone agrees that sailors originally stole St. Nicholas' remains from Myra and took them to Bari. However, there was, evidently, a lot of contention for his remains. It seems that people were literally stealing his remains and moving them to their city.

For instance, Venice claims to have most of Nicholas' remains and that Myra only has one of his arm.

The most bizarre claim is that Nicholas II, the Czar of Russia, donated the remains of St. Nicholas to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in New York. And after the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, the church building was destroyed and the remains of the saints kept there were lost.

The bottom line is that I can neither confirm nor deny any claim of St. Nicholas' final resting place. It's all pretty bizarre to me that someone would actually rob a crypt of its dead remains.

The people who claim to have St. Nicholas' remain should open up their crypt and let forensic researchers figure out from DNA and whatever other tests to see who have a piece of St. Nicholas.

Who is the Historical Santa Claus?

My post concerning Halloween led to a discussion on Christmas and Saint Nicholas. I was quite surprised to find out that many of my friends do not know who Saint Nicholas was. Oh sure, they recognized him as the guy who secretly gave gifts during Christmas but all the other details were completely off their mark. For instance, many thought that he was German.

Since my friends, who are usually knowledgeable of Christian issues, do not know who Saint Nicholas was, I am suspecting that it's probably true of the general public. So, I decided to post what I know (and double checked with reference literature).

The historical Saint Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra (in modern day Turkey but at the time was a Greek city; the city was mentioned in Acts 27). He lived during the 4th century. Although he was the Bishop of Myra, he was born in Italy.

His parents were wealthy. When his parents died and Nicholas received his inheritance, he gave it away to the poor.

During his lifetime, he was renowned for:

1) Defending the Christian faith; most particularly the intolerance of Arianism, a warped form Christian theology at the First Council of Nicaea

2) Intolerance of pagan religions and pagan artifacts; responsible for the destruction of several pagan temples including the Temple of Artemis.

3) Taking care of the poor

4) Defending the falsely accused

Many amazing deeds were attributed to him including rescuing sailors.

The most enduring is, of course, the secret giving of gifts. Evidently, there was a poor man who had three daughters but was unable to afford a proper dowry for them. In those days, it would have doomed them to not only remaining unmarried but would have to become prostitutes to support themselves. So Nicholas, on the nights before each daughter came "of age", would anonomously throw a purse of gold coins into their house. The first two times, he threw the purse through the window. The third time, the father decided to lie in wait to discover their benefactor. When Nicholas caught wind of the father's plan, he tossed the purse down the chimney, instead.

When the Asia Minor was invaded by Turks, at the beginning of the second millennium (long after Nicholas' death), Nicholas' remains were taken to a church in Germany. The town was renamed Nikolausberg.