Today Is the Feast of St. Nicholas, the Real 'Santa Claus' Still Inspiring Charity Today

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra, one of the most important saints in the Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox churches and the real Santa Claus (“Sinter Klaas” is Dutch for “St. Nicholas”). 

It is sad to me that adults and children alike now take a pride in scoffing at Santa Claus. Perhaps it would help to tell the story of the real “Santa Claus,” because Nicholas of Myra was a man as heroic for his unbending resolve in fighting for truth as he was in his immense generosity to the poor.

Nicholas lived in the fourth century, at a time when Christianity was just emerging from the age of state persecution. As a young man, he gave his entire large fortune away to the poor, and was eventually made bishop of Myra in modern Turkey. One famous story of his generosity concerned a family with several daughters, so poor that the daughters were in danger of being sold into slavery. They couldn’t get married without dowries. So, on three different nights, Nicholas tossed bags of gold through the window of the girls’ house for dowries, hoping to keep his kindness a humble secret (eventually the father caught him!). One night, the bag of gold landed in stockings drying before the fire, and accidentally started the Christmas practice of putting up stockings for Santa Claus to fill!

Nicholas was also instrumental in formulating the Nicene Creed, which remains the standard creed of the Catholic Church and Christianity even today. The creed was the product of the Council of Nicaea (325 AD), and it is said that every single member of the clergy and even the lay people attending the council bore the marks of the persecution they had suffered for their faith before Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity. Nicholas and his fellow clergy knew that to be Christian meant to suffer.

“He raised to life three young boys who had been murdered and pickled in a barrel of brine to hide the crime. Th[is] led to his patronage of children in general, and of barrel-makers besides.”

Whether Santa Claus flies around the world with a team of magical reindeer, I don’t know, but one truth is undeniable—he certainly is still inspiring charity, generosity, and love for children among people in our own day.