FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS @ SACRED HEART

The story of Saint Nicholas, the saint most loved by children

Our parishioner Sonia Sedda, prepared an interactive story-telling activity for the gathered children, through which the life of this holy bishop was presented.

According to tradition, St. Nicholas gave a dowry to three poor girls so that they could become brides and - on another occasion - he saved three young children

by Brother Frano Bešlić SDB

On the December 6, 2021, the Second Sunday of Advent, the Parish community celebrated the Feast of St. Nicholas. One of our parishioners, Sonia, prepared an interactive story-telling activity for the gathered children, through which the life of this holy bishop was presented. At the end of the activity, Bro Ante Bulat SDB, dressed as St. Nicholas, distributed some special gifts for all those who took part and we concluded the beautiful afternoon of fun with a simple prayer in our Parish church. St. Nicholas hopes the children will learn from his life and imitate his example.

The myth of Santa Claus comes from the legend of St. Nicholas

The myth of Santa Claus comes from the legend of St. Nicholas, who lived in the fourth century, and is traditionally celebrated on December 6. According to tradition, St. Nicholas gave a dowry to three poor girls so that they could become brides and - on another occasion - he saves three children. In the Middle Ages, the custom of commemorating this episode was with the exchange of gifts on the saint's day (December 6) and spread throughout Europe. The custom is still very much in vogue in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Italy.

Who was Saint Nicholas? Unlike Santa Claus, however, St. Nicholas really existed. He was born in Patara in 270 and was bishop of Myra, in Lycia (present day Turkey). He is a figure shrouded in mystery, but archaeological clues say that he really lived: his name appears in some of the ancient lists of participants in the first Council of Nicaea (325), a meeting of all the bishops of the Christian Church to clarify the theological differences on the nature of Christ. In the absence of certain historical information, the biographers reconstructed the life of Nicholas, seasoning it with details often copied from other lives of saints. He was the only child of rich parents, from an early age, he showed the signs of his holiness: on Wednesdays and Fridays, in fact, he nourished only once a day, to respect the abstinence prescribed by the Christian Church. He did not have a spectacular death as a martyr: he died in a few days, of old age, between 345 and 352. And as he had done in life, even when he died, he defended his community, giving the faithful an oil perfumed with miraculous powers that gushed from his relics, kept in the cathedral of Myra until the 11th century (and taken away by the people of Bari in 1087). So far, however, his fame remained linked only to Lycia. The turning point took place between the seventh and eighth centuries, when, in front of the coasts where the sanctuary stood, the Byzantines and Arabs fought for supremacy over the sea. Thus came the leap in status: Nicholas became the reference point of Byzantine sailors and their protector, transforming himself from a local saint to an international saint. The cult of him expanded along the sea routes of the Mediterranean, reaching Rome and Jerusalem, then to Constantinople, Russia, and the rest of the West.

The Saviour of children

A updated biography, "enriched" with new episodes of his life, give us some interesting insights into his personality. One of the most famous is the story of the three girls, particularly widespread in the 11th-12th century: moved by the fate of three poor girls whom their father was thinking of making prostitutes, for three nights, Saint Nicholas threw them through the open window as many bags of gold. (later symbolised in the iconography with golden balls) as a dowry to get them married. This story gave Saint Nicholas the fame of being a generous bearer of gifts, as well as patron of virgins and of fertility.

Special relationship with CHILDREN

His special relationship with them stems from a grim medieval story worthy of the tales of the Grimm Brothers: one night three boys ask for hospitality in an inn; the host and his wife welcome them gladly because they had finished the meat in the pantry, then they axe them up and put them in brine. After the massacre, St. Nicholas knocks on the door and asks for a plate of meat. When the host refuses, he goes to the pantry, where he extracts the three young men, alive and well, from the brine. The story circulated mainly in ecclesiastical schools, where, on December 28, the Feast of the Innocents was celebrated. On the occasion of this Christianised version of the Saturnalia, the rowdy pagan festival of ancient Rome, the students elected the "bishop", a kind of Roman god Saturn who presided over the festivities and bestowed gifts.

From the end of the thirteenth century, December 6 became the day in which the "bishop Nicholas" climbed on their seats: the tradition reached its peak in the sixteenth century (but in some places it persisted until the nineteenth). And even when the scandalised Church banned these pagan carnivals, Nicholas survived in schools and homes thanks to the children, who continued to celebrate him and receive his gifts.

This wonderful tradition carried out in our Parish of the Sacred Heart. Salesian Brother Ante Bulat, in a noble spirit of Saint Nicholas, blessed and distributed gifts to our children.