The Truth (& Legend) of St. Nick
Saint Nicholas was a real person. We know very few facts about him: He was born to a couple who had been childless for some 30 years, around 300AD, in what is now modern Turkey. When he was around 9 his parents both died in a plague and he was raised by an uncle who was a devout man.
While still a young man, Nicholas became the Bishop of the city of Myra in the province of Lycia. He is said to have lived a life of selflessness, using the money he had inherited from his parents to care for the poor and destitute of his city. He served as Bishop for about 50 years and died on Dec 6.
Many things about St. Nicholas have come to us in the form of legends, which probably contain a grain of truth embellished with time.
He is the patron saint of ships and sailors, schoolboys, and pawnbrokers:
Of ships and sailors—it is said that while still in his teens, Nicholas visited the Holy Land. On the return voyage a violent storm came up and the sailors turned to him for reassurance. For 2 days and 2 nights Nicholas prayed for safety and at dawn on the 3rd day the ship found a safe harbor and they were saved.
Of schoolboys—it is said that he once went in search of 3 kidnapped children and rescued them from an unscrupulous innkeeper who had hidden them in barrels to keep them for ransom.
Of pawnbrokers—Nicholas inherited a sizeable amount of money from his parents. Being deeply religious and having no family of his own, he began to use his own money to buy things secretly for the needy people in his town. It is said that he secretly employed a weaver and a toymaker who kept him supplied with warm clothes and wooden toys which Nicholas distributed with money at night to poor families. Our tradition of hanging stockings probably comes from one of the best known stories in which Nicholas used his own money to save 3 daughters of a destitute family from being sold into prostitution. Legend says the girls had washed out their stockings and hung them on the windowsill to dry. Nicholas is said to have crept up to the open window at night and tossed in 3 bags of gold, thereby providing a dowry for the girls so they could win respectable suitors.
Many parts of the world celebrate Dec. 6th, St. Nicholas Day! “Authentic” stocking stuffers should include food because Nicholas fed the poor (Lifesavers—he is the patron saint of sailors); gold coins because he provided dowry; clothing and toys because he gave those items to the poor.
The gingerbread boy belongs to Dec. 6 because St. Nicholas was a special friend to children and is said to have baked bread himself with sugar and spices from exotic lands to hand out to the children. Even today you can find old cookie cutters that show the pointed miter of a Bishop for their heads!
Adapted from material by Patti Willburn
More info can be found
here: http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38
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