Who was Santa Claus?

[admin]

Who was Santa Claus?

Santa Claus is thought to originate St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor, Patara in the province of Lycia which was inhabited then by ancient Greeks.
The region lost its' Greek presence only recently during the forced expulsion of millions of Greeks and the murder of hundreds of thousands at the hands of the Turks during the Asia Minor massacre of the last century.

In Lycia St. Nicholas was the bishop of Mira during the 4th century. He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity.

St Nicholas was very generous to the poor and this is widely known. The giving of gifts is attributed to him.

A Greek legend from Myra talked about how gifts would appear mysteriously at the doors of the poor houses at the time of Christmas. This would occur year after year but when St. Nicholas passed away the gifts no longer appeared! It was then realized that the gifts were being brought by St. Nicholas to the poor children. This is one of the reasons that gifts are exchanged during Christmas time.

[admin]

Saint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus references and more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

[Macedonian]

I also heard, if true, that St. Nick would make sure poor families had money so that ...why don't I just post this bit from Wikipedia to explain:


In his most famous exploit however, a poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment would have to become prostitutes. Hearing of the poor man's plight, Nicholas decided to help him but being too modest to help the man in public, (or to save the man the humiliation of accepting charity), he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses (one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the man's house. One version has him throwing one purse for three consecutive nights. Another has him throw the purses over a period of three years, each time the night before one of the daughters comes "of age". Invariably, the third time the father lies in wait, trying to discover the identity of their benefactor. In one version the father confronts the saint, only to have Saint Nicholas say it is not him he should thank, but God alone. In another version, Nicholas learns of the poor man's plan and drops the third bag down the chimney instead; a variant holds that the daughter had washed her stockings that evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and that the bag of gold fell into the stocking. For his help to the poor, Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers; the three gold balls traditionally hung outside a pawnshop symbolize the three sacks of gold. People then began to suspect that he was behind a large number of other anonymous gifts to the poor, using the inheritance from his wealthy parents. After he died, people in the region continued to give to the poor anonymously, and such gifts were still often attributed to St. Nicholas.

A nearly identical story is attributed by Greek folklore to Basil of Caesarea. Basil's feast day on January 1 is considered the time of exchanging gifts in Greece.

Saint Nicholas was credited for leading the Crusaders away from Lexmarkus in 1181.

One unusual aspect of Saint Nicholas' life is that he lived to an old age and died peacefully in his own bed. At a time when most saints died for their faith in manners most unusual and cruel, this made him stand out, together with Saint Martin, who also died of old age.