Who's the Real Santa?
Who's the Real Santa?
St. Nicholas Day
Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas of Myra, a fourth century bishop who is the historical person behind the legend of Santa Claus. The patron saint of Russia, Greece, and Sicily, St. Nicholas is also the patron of many cities, towns, and dioceses. He is also the patron saint of pawnbrokers and of children. Legendary accounts about his generosity to poor children probably earned him this role.
Myra, where Nicholas was bishop, was the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor. It is located in the southwestern part of modern Turkey. Nicholas was imprisoned during the terrible persecution ordered by the Emperor Diocletian between the years 303 and 305. Having survived the persecution under Diocletian, Nicholas was able to attend the famous Council of Nicaea in 325, called by order of Emperor Constantine, the man who legalized Christianity and attempted to use the Christian church as a sort of social glue to strengthen the declining Roman Empire. Nicholas was venerated in Constantinople where Emperor Justinian built a large basilica in his honor. Nicholas is also known as St. Nicholas of Bari, in Italy, the place to which relics were secretly transferred as the Eastern part of the Roman Empire fell under Muslim control in the Middle Ages.
Thus, St. Nicholas was popular in the Byzantine tradition and in the West. Some scholars claim that St. Nicholas was one of the saintly bishops most frequently represented in both Byzantine and Western art.
Giving gifts on his feast became a popular practice in the Low Countries because of popular legends about how Santa Claus rewarded good children with gifts and warned the wicked by giving them gifts of lumps of coal or onions and other unpleasant reminders to behave better in the coming year. The practice came to North
America with Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam, present-day New York. The American artist and famous political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, is generally credited with creating the American image of Santa Claus as a jovial, rotund old man dressed in red and white, with flowing white hair and beard. In fact, Thomas Nast secularized Santa Claus to suit the widely diverse religious and cultural amalgam of late nineteenth-century New York by removing all signs of Christian symbols from his popular images of Santa Claus.
This religious feast of St. Nicholas is both a remembrance of a saint and a secular legend popularized around the world. We better all watch out. After all, Santa Claus is coming to town.
St. Nicholas Day
Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas of Myra, a fourth century bishop who is the historical person behind the legend of Santa Claus. The patron saint of Russia, Greece, and Sicily, St. Nicholas is also the patron of many cities, towns, and dioceses. He is also the patron saint of pawnbrokers and of children. Legendary accounts about his generosity to poor children probably earned him this role.
Myra, where Nicholas was bishop, was the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor. It is located in the southwestern part of modern Turkey. Nicholas was imprisoned during the terrible persecution ordered by the Emperor Diocletian between the years 303 and 305. Having survived the persecution under Diocletian, Nicholas was able to attend the famous Council of Nicaea in 325, called by order of Emperor Constantine, the man who legalized Christianity and attempted to use the Christian church as a sort of social glue to strengthen the declining Roman Empire. Nicholas was venerated in Constantinople where Emperor Justinian built a large basilica in his honor. Nicholas is also known as St. Nicholas of Bari, in Italy, the place to which relics were secretly transferred as the Eastern part of the Roman Empire fell under Muslim control in the Middle Ages.
Thus, St. Nicholas was popular in the Byzantine tradition and in the West. Some scholars claim that St. Nicholas was one of the saintly bishops most frequently represented in both Byzantine and Western art.
Giving gifts on his feast became a popular practice in the Low Countries because of popular legends about how Santa Claus rewarded good children with gifts and warned the wicked by giving them gifts of lumps of coal or onions and other unpleasant reminders to behave better in the coming year. The practice came to North
America with Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam, present-day New York. The American artist and famous political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, is generally credited with creating the American image of Santa Claus as a jovial, rotund old man dressed in red and white, with flowing white hair and beard. In fact, Thomas Nast secularized Santa Claus to suit the widely diverse religious and cultural amalgam of late nineteenth-century New York by removing all signs of Christian symbols from his popular images of Santa Claus.
This religious feast of St. Nicholas is both a remembrance of a saint and a secular legend popularized around the world. We better all watch out. After all, Santa Claus is coming to town.
posted by angelo at 2:26 PM
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