PAPAI NOEL - A VERDADEIRA HISTÓRIA?!

Saint Nicholas–

The Real Story

Modern marketing may have morphed him from a devout and caring Christian church bishop into the ubiquitous, seasonal pitchman, but the real Saint Nicholas is worth knowing.

by Julie Stiegemeyer

Several years ago, when our son was still very small, my husband and I had the "Official Santa Claus Discussion." What would we teach our child about Santa? Most families go through it with their

first child, and we did too.

We wondered, should Christians tell their kids that Santa Claus would make gifts for them, fly on a magical sleigh, pop down the chimney, and leave the gifts? About the same time as our Official Discussion, a pastor on the radio recommended that Christian parents avoid telling their children about Santa. How can we justify acting like this myth about Santa is true when we're also telling our children about the Son of God who truly did come to earth to save them? Wouldn't it follow that once your child discovers that Santa is a myth, he or she might also question the truth of Jesus?

That argument seemed compelling to me, particularly because I happened to know a little bit about the real Santa Claus—Saint Nicholas.

So what would we tell our son? We could have started with the Santa Claus legends. Santa, it is told, is a rotund, magical person who lives in a toy factory at the North Pole. All year long, he and the elves build their toys until finally, on Christmas Eve, they load up the sleigh, Santa hops aboard, and reindeer, led by Rudolph, fly around the world. Santa deposits gifts under the Christmas trees of good children; the bad kids, however, miss out on gifts.

I admit that, as a child, I loved this story. My brothers and I would watch the weather report on Christmas Eve and see the weather forecaster in mock surprise say that he saw some unidentified object that looked like a flying sleigh on the radar. I'd go to sleep wondering if Santa would really come to my house. And of course, he always did.

But if we don't tell our son this story, what else could we say? We could have indulged in other lesserknown legends about Saint Nicholas. These legends tell us that Nicholas was a believer in Christ. But they go on to exalt the man Nicholas to an almost god-like status in which he performs miracles of healing, raising the dead, and transporting himself through time and space to rescue sailors in distress.

Or, my husband and I decided, we could tell our son the true story of Saint Nicholas.

What we know to be true is that a man named Nicholas lived in Lycia (modern-day Turkey) in the fourth century. He was orphaned as a teen and inherited a great deal of money from his wealthy parents. However, he did not use this wealth for himself; instead, he gave much of his money to others.

The most famous story of Nicholas' generosity is generally considered to be factual. There was an impoverished father who had three daughters. Being so poor, the father did not have money to pay the dowries of his three girls, so the girls could not get married. In those days, a young woman could not simply go out and get a job. One of her few opportunities for "employment" was prostitution.

So, in order to save the girls from that terrible fate, Nicholas secretly donated enough gold to the family so that the girls would have money for their dowries and could get married.

Scholars do not agree on how or when Nicholas became a bishop. In one version of the story, he was ordained as a young man and became bishop simply because he had the right name. As the church authorities were attempting to choose a new bishop for Myra, one of them had a dream in which God told him that the man who comes to the door named Nicholas should be the next bishop. When Nicholas came to the door and told them his name, he suddenly was a bishop.

Or it could be that his acts of generosity as a young man earned him respect of the church, so he rose to the rank of bishop.

However he got to that position, what is undeniable in terms of historical fact is that, as bishop, he attended the Council of Nicea called by Constantine in 325. At this gathering, church leaders produced the important Nicene Creed.

A colorful tale of Nicholas took place during the Council of Nicea. Bishop Arius of Alexandria was asserting falsely that Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, was not equally divine with the Father. In the face of this falsehood, Nicholas could not restrain himself. He got up and punched Arius in the nose. How's that for a nasty church-council fight? No matter what, you could definitely say that Nicholas was not afraid to defend the truth of the Gospel. He was put in jail for the incident, but later the bishops decided he should be released.

Teaching kids about the real Nicholas is helpful because it can give them insight into this very real man of faith who served the church and was generous to his neighbor. It may also help younger kids understand how old Christianity is. Christians have been sharing the Good News of our Lord for many hundreds of years.

The story of Nicholas is also intriguing because his homeland of Turkey and the surrounding area today is thoroughly non-Christian. It was not always so.

Occasionally, around Christmastime, I see figurines of Santa kneeling before the Christ child in the manger. In some ways, this image is jarring. Why would Santa, this secular image for Christmas, be paired with the real meaning of the holiday? But knowing the back-ground of the Nicholas' story helps us realize that this image is completely appropriate. It's silly, in some ways, to show a chubby red-suited elf worshipping Christ. But in actuality, a pious Christian bishop named Nicholas who lived in the fourth century really did worship the Babe in the manger.

The Santa Claus myth focuses on whether children are "naughty or nice." While it's important for parents to discipline and instruct their children in proper behavior, being good or being bad is not the central idea of Christmas. And it certainly is not the main message of Christianity.

Christmas is about God's gifts—a baby, a Savior, a miracle, and how God forgives our sins. Understanding the true story of Nicholas can support this. He was a devout believer in Christ who, because of the undeserved mercy of God, gave to those around him.

So, instead of teaching our children that a rotund supernatural person will reward them for being good and punish them for bad behavior, our family turns toward Christ at Christmas and all year long. We focus on the kindness and mercy of God that prompted Him to send His only Son to earth as a baby for our sakes. Jesus became one of us so that He could die for us. He became incarnate specifically to go to the cross. And, like the real St. Nicholas, we find that the real joy of Christmas is Jesus.

Julie Stiegemeyer is a member of Redeemer Lutheran Church,

Fort Wayne, Ind. For more information about Julie's books, see

www.juliestiegemeyer.com.

Revista The Lutheran Witness, Dezembro de 2006. pp 12-14