Does Santa Claus really exist? A little sooner or a little later, every child asks this question. And parents can easily answer their children by telling them about the beautiful life of St. Nicholas.
Gaudium Press English Edition
Newsdesk(23/12/2021 21:25, Gaudium Press) Christmas is approaching! In shopping centres, you often see a character in brightly colored costumes, arousing general curiosity and, in children, the joyful expectation of gifts and goodies.
It’s Santa Claus. How did this tradition come about? In reality, there was a much more important person than the legendary Santa Claus. It was St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Turkey, who died in 324.
This great Saint is depicted going from house to house, bringing gifts to the pious and well-behaved children. By telling their children about his beautiful life, parents awaken in children’s souls a sense of the marvelous and stimulate the practice of virtue. With the advantage that, in this case, reality surpasses the legend.
Few saints enjoy such popularity, and to few are attributed so many miracles. Saint John Damascene praised him as follows: “The whole universe has in you a ready help in afflictions, an encouragement in sorrows, a consolation in calamities, an advocate in temptations, a most salutary remedy in infirmities.
Nicholas was quite young when he lost his parents, inheriting from them an immense fortune that enabled him to practice charity on a large scale.
One day he heard about three girls who, because they were poor, could not find suitors for marriage, and their father intended to lead them into a bad life. So, at night, Nicholas went and threw into the man’s room a bag of gold coins. A few days later, the eldest daughter was married. Nicolau repeated the gesture, and soon after, the second daughter was getting married. Just as he was getting ready to throw the money for the third time, he was discovered. Coming out of the shadows where he was hiding, the father threw himself at his benefactor’s feet, weeping with repentance and gratitude. From then on, he never tired of proclaiming everywhere the favours he had received.
On another occasion, while boarding a ship, he warned the captain that there would be a violent storm on the way. The old sea wolf received this prediction from a simple passenger with an ironic smile. The storm, however, was not long in coming.
It was so terrible that everyone believed their end had come. When they heard that a passenger had foreseen what was happening, they ran to him for help.
Nicholas prayed to God, and soon the storm ceased, the sea calmed down, and the sun appeared resplendent… Thus, he became the patron saint of sailors, who invoke him in times of danger.
St. Bonaventure tells us that in an inn, the owner had murdered two students to get their money. Horrified by this heinous crime, St. Nicholas resurrected the young men and converted the murderer.
On the day he was consecrated Bishop of Myra, barely after the ceremony was over, a woman threw herself at his feet with a child in her arms, pleading, “Give life to my little son! He fell into the fire and died a horrible death. Take pity on me. Give him life!” Moved and full of compassion for the pain of that mother, he made the sign of the cross over the child who rose again in the presence of all the faithful present at the consecration ceremony.
In some European countries, it is customary for people to exchange gifts on his feast day, December 6th. For us, too, Saint Nicholas will not fail to meet our needs. Let us ask him, therefore, not only for material goods, but, above all, for great spiritual gifts. May he obtain from the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph the grace, this Christmas, of the birth in our souls of the Baby Jesus – the greatest gift given to mankind – in order to reach the heavenly homeland, for which we were created.
By Fr. Ricardo Basso, EP
