Adam English has written a lovely book called The Saint Who Would be Santa Claus about St. Nick, Nicholas of Myra. The highest praise I can give it is this: I've read elsewhere that the Santa Claus we have is largely derived from a combination of the 19th century poem, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and Coca-Cola advertisements from the mid-20th century. English's book brings us to Turkey in the mid-200's A.D. and competently accustoms me and allows me to imaginatively inhabit that world, to the point that Santa Claus' prevalence in my community this time of year has once again become, appropriately, strange. Bravo, Professor English, bravo.
His storytelling is superb. One senses while reading English's book that the modern reader who encounters the primary sources about Nicholas of Myra directly would shrink from them. The ancient middle-eastern world of Nicholas comes across as harsh. The medieval world that gave rise to Nicholas' biographies appears rose-tinted as good people like say, Nicholas, come across as flawless and super-human - Saint Nicholas! - which in turn would seem to lead to the rise of the cult of saint veneration that Protestants have tended to loathe. English knows his readers well. Like a good teacher, like a good storyteller, he knows that when we travel back to the medieval era when biographies of Nicholas were written, and then try to get even further back to the ancient era when Nicholas actually lived, we are trying to enter two very different worlds from our own. But as he leads us step by step with careful historical guidance, he leaves us in a place where we can befriend Nicholas as he has and learn to follow Christ with him.
In other words, English doesn't just want us to have a slightly deeper appreciation for today's Santa Claus. He wants to introduce us to the real Nicholas of Myra. I was delighted to find that this book about Santa Claus that I sort of forced myself to read is one of the more trenchant, absorbing, escapist in the best sense of the word, introductions to this ancient culture which, as English convincingly writes, gave us one of the golden ages of the Christian faith. And Nicholas, seemingly, was right there for it all.
The ancient world encouraged child-bearing yet discouraged affection toward children. The infant mortality rate was just too high. When one in three children die, there is a 'wait and see' attitude that is only pragmatic. Life expectancy was between 21 and 25 years old and four out of every one hundred men lived past fifty. It is telling that the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were abandoned children who defied the odds. Adults mattered in the ancient world. Not children. But because death was such a reaper as this, large families were monetarily rewarded, while small families and infertile couples were taxed. Girls as young as fourteen could marry and begin to have families.
Moreoever, this was a world with no mutual funds: people were more vulnerable to total devastation from a bad crop or a spell of poor weather. Nicholas had the good fortune to be born to parents who were "financially prosperous, socially secure, and religiously committed." (42) He was born in Patara, a southern town in what is now Turkey. It was on the coastal trade route, where he would have had access to corn, wheat, barley, and cheese. We don't know his parents names, but we know he was raised in the Christian faith. This was still a frontier religion when Nicholas was born, although his grounding in the gospel of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was firm, a hallmark of the ministry of the Apostle Paul, who had himself preached the gospel in this town while on his journeys. Nicholas' youth saw the transformation of the religious landscape in Patara on account of Gregory of Neocaesarea, or Gregory the Wonderworker. When he was ordained bishop, there were said to be only seventeen Christians in all; when he finished, there were only seventeen pagans. (45) As this landscape changed, Christian communities went from meeting in homes to free-standing chapels, basilicas, and shrines. There were people from this community who died to keep the faith. English describes the quality of Nicholas' life:
"He had a strong moral compass and avoided "public life," where he might be obliged to take oaths, swear by the genus of the emperor, or participate in pagan ceremonies; he abstained from "economic activities" where he might be tempted by cutthroat competition and greed; he closed his ears to the profane and vulgar talk of "uncultivated people," he kept his eyes from "the lust of women," and kept his heart from "theatrical performances." Instead," Michael (his biographer) says, "he nurtured continence." He kept alive "the lamp of virginity" - a phrase that implies more than sexual purity. Moral integrity, compassion, politeness, humility, and self-control also counted as marks of holy virginity. Purity was holistic, involving mind, body, and soul and requiring the doing of certain things and the avoidance of others." (46-47)
His education would have introduced him to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as well as the tragedies of Aeschylus and Euripides. He would have memorized large sections of Greek literature and composed speeches and responses to prompts. (48). Nicholas had a great upbringing, not least due to his parents, who tragically died when Nicholas was 18 years old, perhaps due to a plague. Nicholas' life had been touched by love, sturdiness, discipline, and grief.
The sole beneficiary, Nicholas received a hefty inheritance. We're told of how Nicholas wrestled with the "temptation" of this inheritance. He would call to mind Proverbs 11:17: "the person who has compassion on the indigent and on the poor does good for his soul." He would read how the first believers took care of one another and provided for one another's needs: "From time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need" (Acts 4:34-35) Beyond even this, Christians were supposed to provide for anyone in need. Tertullian (160-220), in explaining the Christian way to outsiders, described a movement in which people did not only provide for family, but also provided food and shelter for orphans, widows, and prisoners. In short, Nicholas was soaked in this perspective on wealth, and was thus on a prayerful lookout for something to put his wealth to godly use... (to be continued on December 11)
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