Read an excerpt from “The World of St. Nicholas” below, then read the full story.
When icy winds blow down from polar climes, and Christmastide draws nearer, children in many parts of the world look northward, thinking fondly on a jolly Christmas elf in a warm red fur-trimmed suit. But the real St. Nicholas, the “ancestor” of our Santa Claus, knew nothing of snow and arctic landscapes. He was the kindly bishop of Myra — today called Demre — in Asia Minor, which corresponds to the part of modern Turkey that lies in Asia. As a boy in Patara, where legend tells us he was born, Nicholas played on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea under a sun that was often warm and bright even in December.
Patara, located in a coastal province of Asia Minor called Lycia, boasted one of the great harbors of the ancient world. A magnificent lighthouse stood on Patara’s highest hill overlooking the harbor, where the docks were busy all day as men loaded goods for trade and unloaded cargoes from the shores of Egypt, Spain and Greece. A proud Roman governor held office in the city, from time to time consulting the oracle of Apollo, whose temple in Patara was a lure for pagan pilgrims from many lands.
Little is known of the early years of Nicholas, spent amid the bustle of politics and business at Patara, but he is said to have shown great holiness at an early age, giving generously to the poor. At some time during his young manhood, perhaps as a student of theology, he came to the city of Myra.
When the bishop of Myra died, bishops of the province gathered to elect a successor. Uncertain about whom to choose, they heard a voice in the night that told them, “The first man to enter the church in the morning will be your bishop.” Joyfully at daybreak they hailed Nicholas, first of all to prayers in Myra.
Christianity spread and thrived in the time of Nicholas, but persecution lay ahead for the flourishing Church. The Emperor Diocletian, pondering the words of the oracle of Apollo at Didyma, decided to eliminate forever what seemed to him a state within the heart of his empire. In 303, the ruler who called himself the “Divine Caesar” brought the might of imperial Rome against the Christians. Churches were vandalized and razed, and the followers of Christ were pursued relentlessly across the breadth of the empire. Nicholas himself, we are told, was imprisoned and tortured for the love of his faith. Finally, in 313, Emperor Constantine the Great restored the civil rights of the Christians, and as their faith spread, so did the fame of Nicholas.