Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
9: Is Santa Claus Real?
0 Plays2 seconds ago
St. Nicholas of Myra (modern day Turkey) was not only the person on which all legends and traditions of Santa Claus are based, he was also a zealous defender of the Faith, a defender of the poor and innocent, a defender of children, and came to be known as a wonderworker. Come with us and learn about this Saint who was lovingly devoted to the Incarnation!
Recommended
Transcript
Christmas Surprise Teaser
00:00:00
Speaker
Please stay tuned at the end of this episode for a very special Christmas surprise.
00:00:18
Speaker
Happy Advent, Merry Christmas, whatever is
Meet the Hosts
00:00:21
Speaker
applicable. Welcome to the DeBucharistic Revival Podcast. Because that's the name we're going with. My name is Father Jacob Rouse, and I am the pastor of Notre Dame Parish in Cresco, Iowa, in the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
00:00:34
Speaker
And I'm joined by my co-host, Father Kevin Earlywine. I am Father Kevin Earlywine, ah pastor of St. Patrick's in Hampton and St. Mary's in Ackley. And I'm happy to be here.
00:00:45
Speaker
Before I introduce
Parental Advisory
00:00:47
Speaker
our very special guest this episode, this is the first time in this podcast history that we actually have a parental disclaimer beforehand. The the topic of this ah episode is Santa Claus and his existence. However, his existence may be a little bit different than you or your children might know. And so I would recommend for parents with small children to
Exploring Santa Claus and St. Nicholas
00:01:12
Speaker
listen to this first, depending on ah your level of revelation and understanding of Santa Claus.
00:01:19
Speaker
All right, that's out of the way. There you go My guest this week, our guest this week is the very Reverend Father Kevin Earlywine. Who's also your co-host and guest. co-host Yes. so um yeah So the episode is just us. We'll also have in spirit, St. Nicholas, who is the topic of our episode. So
Who was St. Nicholas?
00:01:43
Speaker
Father Kevin, why why do you want to talk about St. Nicholas?
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah. ah So as Father Jacob alluded to, this a little different than our standard episodes. Rather than having a guest on and talk about goings-ons in the diocese, we just wanted to have this fun especially as we're in the season of Advent, moving towards Christmas episode, about Santa Claus. And I'm here to tell you, Father Jacob Rouse, that Santa Claus is in fact real. Oh, wow. Contrary to what people might say. Okay.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yes. Santa Claus is real. And that's what I want to talk about today. Because he's actually um really amazing. And I'm a big fan of Santa Claus, a.k.a. St. Nicholas. So I'm excited to talk about him. And I've given talks on him before. um So I'm excited to to teach you and our listeners all about this really incredible saint, St. Nicholas,
Council of Nicaea and St. Nicholas's Role
00:02:34
Speaker
who um is maybe known as a degree as ah one who brings gifts and maybe has a sleigh and reindeer and so on. but um
00:02:44
Speaker
But that's only one piece that people know about him, of you know the toy maker and the elves. But there's so much more to him that is really amazing. And that's what we're going to be talking about today. The only thing I know about St. Nicholas is that, um, every year on my birthday, I always put on December 6th is my birthday and I always put out shoes and there always ends up to be something inside of them. And, um, St. Nicholas came the night before and, uh, that's all I know. So, wow. I forgot that you share a birthday with on St. Nicholas day. That's really your birthday. day Yeah. I forgot that. Yeah. December 6th is his feast day. Well, that's amazing.
00:03:19
Speaker
Um, So before we get into him, um you know, dropping things in shoes and then eventually breaking and entering into people's homes down the chimney, who is this guy?
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah. um And i I wanted to talk about him because, of course, we see, ah you know, this time of year, we see a lot of there's a lot of Santa Claus movies. There's a lot of Santa Claus imagery. And ah I remember even when I was in high school, among some of my Christian friends, there is sort of this move among some Christians to disassociate.
00:03:50
Speaker
from Santa Claus
Understanding Incarnation in Christianity
00:03:51
Speaker
because Santa Claus kind of became the face of secular Christmas, you know, sort of as, so it's seen as like secularizing Christmas and taking away from Jesus. And, um, actually stumbled across this funny cartoon of Santa Claus and Jesus arm wrestling.
00:04:07
Speaker
And it says, okay, the winner gets Christmas, you know, and that's, uh, some people's image of Santa Claus, right? This kind of, he's in competition, with the with the true reason this season for us Christians.
00:04:20
Speaker
But I'm here to tell you that that it doesn't have to be. In fact, Santa Claus's whole life was dedicated very much to the Lord. So and that's what I want to delve into. so um So really, I guess the theme, ah the the overarching thesis, if you will, is is that St. Nicholas is a man whose life is shaped by the mystery of the incarnation of Christ.
00:04:44
Speaker
So, Father Jacob, can you tell our listeners, what do we mean when we Christians say the incarnation? The incarnation refers to the... central idea of our faith that God became man, that carne, if you think of chili con carne, with meat or meat, it comes from the Latin root. um He became meat. He became human, took on flesh. so the
Stories of St. Nicholas's Life and Generosity
00:05:11
Speaker
incarnation is jesus is God becoming man in Jesus Christ.
00:05:16
Speaker
Precisely. Yeah. Which we particularly celebrate at Christmas, right? of his coming into the world as as man. He took on flesh, the incarnation. So we want to also, for our listeners, make sure to that that is a different thing than reincarnation, which is a Hindu idea. Reincarnation is a Hindu idea, not a Christian idea, of that when you die, you're born again as a you know different person or a different creature or whatever. But the incarnation is precisely that event of God became man, that Jesus isn't just a teacher, but he's in fact God made flesh. And so
00:05:49
Speaker
i ah present to you all today that St. Nicholas is a man whose life was shaped by that specific aspect of the mystery of of Christ, of Christianity. And so so the mystery we celebrate at Christmas is very core to the being of St. Nicholas and very much something he dedicated his life to.
00:06:08
Speaker
um So to understand a little bit of that, I first want to talk about the world he was in. ah So St. Nicholas lived approximately from 270
00:06:18
Speaker
to 343 AD. That's early. Yes, yes, very early on. So the first few centuries of Christianity he was living. um And just to give a little context of this time is it was a very, there some very dramatic things that happened in the life of Christianity during this time.
00:06:39
Speaker
So first of all, um there was, um first there was the Emperor Diocletian who reigned during this period until 305. And Diocletian was a famously very oppressive to Christians, that he very much ah persecuted Christians in a very active way. You know, the different Roman emperors, some were more neutral about Christianity, but some were more aggressively against. And Diocletian is one of those that was famously more opposed to Christianity. So there was very intense persecution of Christians. So during the life
Defender of Faith: Council of Nicaea Stories
00:07:12
Speaker
of St. Nicholas, he would have witnessed these very intense persecutions. He would have been a bishop during some of that period as well.
00:07:19
Speaker
um Until then, in 313 AD, Emperor Constantine, um ah following Diocletian, Constantine became the emperor. And Constantine then kind of went to the other extreme, that he legalized Christianity. um and where And so all of a sudden, Christianity goes from this severe persecution to now all of a sudden it's legal, and they can organize themselves in this new way. So as it was a very dramatic shift.
00:07:44
Speaker
um And it was shortly after then, then they had some very significant church councils. It's like, oh, you know, now that we don't have to worry about surviving every day, we can actually hash through some of these big ah theological questions of what does this mean to be Christian? And so so significantly, the one for for us today that we'll touch on is a church council called the Council of Nicaea. We'll get more into that in a little bit, but that would have occurred in, and there's reason to believe that ah Bishop Nicholas himself would have attended that council.
00:08:16
Speaker
So, um so So that's a little bit of the context. ah And Nicholas was a bishop in a place called Myra, most famously, which is in now modern-day Turkey, um so in kind of a different part of the world. So would have been in the same general region, it's still a little ways away, but from Ephesus, which our listeners might know because St. Paul wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus in the Ephesians.
00:08:41
Speaker
um And so he would have ah probably had some connections there to Ephesus as well. It's just kind of up the coastline from from Myra, but Myra is kind of where he landed. So that's a little bit about, um i guess, the background before we get into his life. That's kind of the the world he was living in, which I think is helpful to understand some of the things.
00:09:01
Speaker
And yeah, that's really... I didn't realize i didn't realize that St. Nicholas lived the right after Constantine did his stuff. um Keep in mind, this is... um about two-ish, 300 years. So still, I mean, older than the time between Christ and St. Nicholas and so and Constantine is the same amount of time as America has existed.
00:09:26
Speaker
And that may seem really small, may seem really long, but in the context of Christianity of 2000 years, um it's it's still very, very early. So that's that's a fascinating perspective to put things. yes yeah Yeah, that he was a lot earlier than some people realize. yeah so yeah So let's get a a little bit of Nicholas's life, shall we? So, um of course, it's one of those things where we have some different sources that contribute to what we know about him, and not as much as known about his early life, but there is some evidence that we know he was orphaned as a youth, um and he was raised by an uncle of his,
00:10:08
Speaker
um And being orphaned as a youth, yeah his parents were actually pretty wealthy, so he received a rich inheritance when he was orphaned. um But of course, he gave a lot of that money away to the poor and to the church and to support that.
00:10:21
Speaker
And of course, later became a priest and then, of course, a bishop of Myra. There's a legend of how he became ah the bishop is that he basically just wanted to go pray in a church one day and he walked in and there was a bunch of bishops praying there.
00:10:37
Speaker
priests and bishops, and they saw him walk in and they said said, what's your name? And he said, Nicholas. And the bishop was shocked because he had a revelation in prayer that they were trying to decide who would be the next bishop of Myra, that they one of them had a revelation that a man will come into the church, his name will be Nicholas, and he will be the next bishop. And so that's the the legends that he just kind of accidentally walked in and and it was providentially ordained that he would be named bishop. So, of course, that's a little bit more of a legendary story, whether that was true or not.
00:11:08
Speaker
We're not sure, but it's one of the... I'm still going to be very, very careful about what churches I go in to pray now. because Yeah, because someone might be like, hey, I just had a revelation, a man named Jacob will be here next bishop. so So there you go. So beware, beware.
00:11:21
Speaker
um so ah So that was a bit of his early life. But kind of for our topic today, I want to talk about kind of four aspects of St. Nicholas, cut ah of all the various kind of,
00:11:33
Speaker
stories about him kind of in four categories. So number one, that St. Nicholas was a zealous defender of the faith. So that'll be the first thing we talk about. Number two, that he was a defender of the poor and the innocent.
00:11:45
Speaker
Number three, that he's a defender of children. And number four, that he was a great wonder worker. And
Miracles and Wonders of St. Nicholas
00:11:52
Speaker
we'll talk about what those each mean. So, so number one, he was a zealous defender of the faith. So kind of what we already talked about is he was a, um,
00:12:02
Speaker
ah yeah he would have lived during the the great persecutions of Emperor Diocletian, which means you got to be pretty serious about your faith if you're going to live it, and more so than during that time if you're going to become a leader of the faith as a priest or bishop. So that speaks in and of itself of that he would have experienced different forms of persecutions um in his own life, in the life of his priests around him and his parishioners and so on, certainly for a period of time.
00:12:33
Speaker
um until Christianity was legalized by Constantine. ah There's also a story that there was a famous temple in Artemis. I had mentioned, or excuse me, a temple of Artemis in Myra, where he was serving, um and ah that he famously ah had that temple torn down, or different accounts say you know either torn down or converted into a church um when he was you know to defending Christianity and then establishing Christianity. So just to show his zeal
00:13:03
Speaker
um for the true faith and whatnot. And earlier I had mentioned Ephesus. um So the Bible does account that Ephesus was kind of a central to devotion to Artemis, I believe.
00:13:15
Speaker
I think in Acts it talks about a temple of Artemis in Ephesus and during in Acts of the Apostles. I may have to check my sources on that. I haven't brushed up on that. but But again, it would be a similar region of the world. Myra would have been down the coast. And so that spread then there to being temples of Artemis And other kind of neighboring places, kind of offshoots of that. um And then, but the big thing we're going to talk about here is then him attending the Council of Nicaea.
00:13:43
Speaker
h So the Council of Nicaea is an important council in 325. ah And the Council of Nicaea was a, ah the big thing they were addressing, they were addressing various issues, but one of them was the heresy of Arianism.
00:14:00
Speaker
So Father Jacob, I'm going to put you on the spot here. do you What do you remember about the heresy of Arianism? What is Arianism? Arian heresy. Well, I know Arius taught little children a song to sing that there was a time when he was not, which means that Jesus, Arius, the man who started Arianism, believed that Jesus was a creature, that he was created by God instead of begotten and co-eternal.
00:14:26
Speaker
So all these things like Jesus loves you and God became man, all these things are easy for us to just say, accept and believe. And yet through the crucible of centuries of heresies, they had to fight about this stuff. And yeah, so basically Jesus was a creature, which is not true.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yes, precisely. Yes, that's what Bishop Arius was spreading um that Jesus was a creature, as you so eloquently put, that that he is not co-equal, co-eternal with God, but he was a creature creature of God. Still higher than humans, but not God. So as you can see, as we talked about the incarnation, how that very idea flies in the face of the incarnation, because rather it's the idea, the incarnation is the idea that Jesus is God who became man, right? Whereas Arianism is
00:15:20
Speaker
Well, he's maybe something like a super powerful angel kind of being maybe, but he wasn't God. or something like Yeah. yeah there' something yeah Yeah. So, but this was a very popular thing that Bishop Arius was teaching. So the council of Nicaea was precisely to clarify, well, what is actually true about Jesus Christ? Right.
00:15:41
Speaker
And of course the council of Nicaea reveals to us that, um, um, no God, Jesus isn't a creature, but that he's co-equal, co-eternal with God.
00:15:51
Speaker
um Fun fact, that's at least laid the foundation then to something that our listeners may be familiar with, that we say in Mass every week, or nearly every week, but the Nicene Creed. The word Nicene is from Nicaea, this very council.
00:16:07
Speaker
And you may notice, you know, ah because of course there was the earlier Apostles' Creed, which just said, i you know, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only of the Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and so on.
00:16:21
Speaker
But then, because there was this confusion about, is Jesus really God? Then they added into the creed, by the way, in case you didn't get it, Jesus is not created of God, ah because what do we say in the creed? That he's begotten, not made, born of the Father before all ages.
00:16:38
Speaker
And in case that's not enough, he's God from God. light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with or consubstantial with the Father. And through him, all things were made.
00:16:50
Speaker
So if that's not clear enough, I don't know what is. But you're saying that the the creed we say, although it's been translated into English, the creed we say every weekend and on solemnities is over 700 years old.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yes. And it's printed right there in the front cover of our missiles. Yes. Wow. Wow. huh And more more than 700, that would have been 300. So like more than 1700 years old. seventeen Oh my goodness. Yeah. 1700 years old. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:20
Speaker
So, um, so it, you know, hammers home the idea of of the incarnation, right. Directly against the Aryan heresy. So, um, so Nicholas was, uh, would have been in attendance here at, at, uh, Nicaea at the council of Nicaea.
00:17:38
Speaker
Um, And ah there's actually a story that I love about St. Nicholas that um St. Nicholas was so zealous about the truth of who Jesus is in the incarnation that at one point during the council, when Bishop Arius was presenting his um his theology, which was deemed later to be heretical in the council um about this idea that Jesus wasn't really mad, that Bishop Nicholas got so upset that he went up and he slapped Arius across the face.
00:18:09
Speaker
to to ah correct him for his heresy. you know And so, jolly old St. Nicholas. So there you go. Beautiful heretics. Yep.
00:18:20
Speaker
And so I actually have a mug here that I'm drinking from as we're talking that is a humorous mug that says ah has an image of St. Nicholas on it. And it says, I came to give presents to kids and punch heretics. And I just ran out of presents. So...
00:18:37
Speaker
Very good. So obviously we don't condone violence, especially religious motivated violence. And yet this is a part of our tradition and part of the legends and stories that go along with all the saints, human and flawed and holy.
00:18:52
Speaker
Yes. And so, yeah, while we don't recommend a punch or a slap necessarily as the first course of correcting heresy, um it it what it the point it shows is is him as a zealous defender of the faith. That maybe you went too far in his zeal, but it does show um how zealous he was of the truth of Jesus Christ in the incarnation, ah which is the core mystery of Christmas. So here you have a guy who is very a passionate defender of the truth of the incarnation, the century mystery of Christmas. And so that is Saint Nicholas, right?
00:19:25
Speaker
um So that is Saint Nicholas as a zealous defender of the faith. But of course there's more to him than that. Which brings us to point number two that I want to talk about. Saint Nicholas as a defender of the poor and the innocent.
00:19:39
Speaker
a i So he, as a bishop, not only was he zealous about defending the true faith, but also another way we can think about the mystery of the incarnation as shaping his life is very much this idea, of course, God poured himself out, right? He emptied himself to became man. It says in Philippians, though he was in the form of God, He did not deem me equality with God something to be grasped at or taken advantage of. Rather, he emptied himself and took on the form of the slave.
00:20:08
Speaker
And so there's a sense that our all-powerful almighty God associates himself, of course, with the poor and the lowly. And of course, Jesus has things, whatever you do to the least to me, you do unto me, um and those kinds of quotes. So that very much shaped who Nicholas was as well.
00:20:24
Speaker
He wasn't just about defending orthodoxy, but he cared very deeply for those who were suffering, those who were poor, um and for justice. So there's a story about many miracles that were worked through him, which we'll say a little more in ah that he was a wonder worker, but I'll say more about that later. But one of them being is that there was a great famine and there was the experience of a multiplication of grain.
00:20:47
Speaker
he they They were low on grain and there was a famine, and but he started, he prayed and then he started giving out grain to people and there was plenty for everyone.
00:20:57
Speaker
you know, sort of like the multiplication of the loaves of Jesus. but Wow. that well That even reminds me of um way back in Genesis when ah Joseph is sold into slavery and then the Lord places him as the leader of Egypt to to save the country from a famine.
00:21:14
Speaker
whom whom Yeah. Yeah. And so whether like in the Joseph story, he had some revelation and knew a famine was coming and saved up or it was miraculously multiplied. Either way, It's God miraculously working through this man to care for the hungry, right? To care for people.
00:21:31
Speaker
So
Further Acts of Generosity and Miracles
00:21:33
Speaker
um there's also a story of him. And I just thought this was such a cool cool story when I learned about this, about him saving innocent men from execution. So there is a story, and this is probably historically true. Like it's a pretty early resource we have of this, that there is um there was some men who were condemned to death and yeah to be executed in a public way. They were going to be beheaded by a sword.
00:21:58
Speaker
um and we're not exactly given the details of it, but essentially it was, they, they were known to be innocent men, but for whatever reason, politics or whatever, somebody wanted to remove these men. So drummed up these false charges against them. was going to have them probably executed.
00:22:16
Speaker
Some people came to Bishop Nicholas and they said, these three men are condemned to die. They're innocent. Um, Can you do anything? And so Nicholas charges into the, you know, the the execution when the guy is raising the sword and he snatches the sword away and basically calls him out for the, for unjustly executing these, these innocent men and calls them to task. So there there's some images you can find online, some paintings of him doing this. And there's one of him of like the sword coming right down to the guy's neck and Bishop Nicholas reaching over and grabbing the sword you know, by the blade to to hold it back from wow the man. So he to just showed his own passion for, to to do what is right and good, right. And to care for the innocent.
00:23:00
Speaker
So that's pretty punk rock of him. It is. Yeah. So he was a very, obviously a very compassionate dude for the poor and the innocent, but he was a like, he was also a very, ah he was a tough guy too. You know, like he wasn't afraid to run into the fray and face these things, oh which is really beautiful.
00:23:21
Speaker
um And so, and then the other story, another story about him is then um probably one of the more famous stories about him is there was this father who was really poor and had these three daughters that he couldn't financially support. And so, you know, he was going to maybe sell them into slavery of various kinds. And unfortunately, certain kinds of slavery for women at the time were not good.
00:23:45
Speaker
um i mean, slavery is never made a particular form of slavery to women at that time, which, uh, or at least there's kid deduce. But so he, um managed to get funds to have three sacks of gold, basically for a dowry for each of them. And, uh, the story is that he, of course he was humble though, that he didn't want to to know it was from him. And so he went and just, uh, tossed it through the window.
00:24:10
Speaker
And one of the stories he's tossed a bag of gold through the window and it landed right in the stocking, hanging over the fire. um And then there's another time when the window was closed, so he threw a bag of gold down the chimney.
00:24:21
Speaker
But basically then he ended up with these three bags of gold secretly kind of depositing them in this house of this very poor man so his daughters would be well taken care of. um So, but that's one of the more famous stories that show him giving to the poor. But it's also then where we ah kind of one of the foundations of tradition of St. Nicholas leaving gifts in your stockings as they're hanging drying over the fireplace.
00:24:45
Speaker
um and or you put out your shoes and he leaves gifts in your shoes, ah like on St. Nicholas Day, and you described Father Jacob on your birthday.
00:24:55
Speaker
o So that's ah that's a bit about St. Nicholas as kind of a defender of the poor. um And then that brings us to point number three, that St. Nicholas was a great defender of children, which kind of builds off the last point. We already talked about his care for those three young women, those three daughters of the poor man. Um, but then he also gave gifts to children, like I said, in other ways that he was known to, especially at Christmas time, because he wanted children to know how much they were loved by the Lord and to experience the joy and the beauty of the mystery of the incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas, that he would go and leave gifts. And of course he tried to do it secretly.
00:25:37
Speaker
of course, people usually saw him, um But he tried to do it secretly, leaving it in their on their doorsteps or in their shoes that they set out to dry or ah tossing it through their windows and so on. But ah but it particularly cared for children and for the poor and the orphaned especially.
00:25:55
Speaker
So, which of course then is a major piece where we get the tradition of St. Nicholas coming and in fact bringing gifts. And indeed some of you may have received gifts from St. Nicholas at Christmas or um or at least in the spirit of St. Nicholas of who he is.
00:26:10
Speaker
um And we can say that in a way it's from St. Nicholas, right? Because as Catholics, um we believe in this real idea of the communion of saints, right? That um the saints are truly present to us.
00:26:24
Speaker
They're still a part of our life. They're active, praying, and interceding. um And so in a way they are very present to us because they're alive in Christ. um So he's very much real.
00:26:36
Speaker
I think that's a um ah fascinating twist on there's a I don't know if entitlement is the right word. ah i am asking for Christmas for this thing.
00:26:48
Speaker
And then also just when you're shopping, when you're in the store and you see people milling about all focused on buying things for other people, which is good. ah I think it's it's cool that the the tradition came from someone who is in desperate need and then he gave out of his excess to fulfill that need and essentially save them. And so um I think when i when i on Christmas morning this year, when I opened up my big brand new shiny red fire truck or whatever toy I'm going to get, to think about that this tradition came from...
00:27:26
Speaker
a gift being given because of desperate need. And in the same way that, uh, Christ came as a gift to us who are in desperate need of a savior. Yeah. I'm going to think about that now.
00:27:40
Speaker
Beautiful. Yeah. Good. And that's what I hope for all our listeners series that Santa Claus inspires people to ponder more deeply. Yeah. The mysteries of Christ. That's why we're talking about this.
00:27:54
Speaker
Um, There's another really neat story, speaking of desperation, of St. Nicholas rescuing children. So there's a story actually about, and there's different variations of the story, but about three children or youths who were, um who were captured, um, and were in hiding that he went rescued. There's kind of a ah darker version of the story that it was a guy who actually murdered the children and hit them in a salt brine,
00:28:21
Speaker
um But St. Nicholas had a revelation about it and he went and he ah blessed them and resurrected them. you know by the and Through the power of Christ, they were brought back to life, these three children.
00:28:33
Speaker
um So so these there's some images of of him blessing like three children into like a barrel. And that's kind of the that's the image of that story.
00:28:45
Speaker
um There's also a story about a young boy named Basilios. And this was, um I believe it would have been after Saint Nicholas had died and would have been in heaven.
00:28:56
Speaker
ah But there was a boy who was captured by pirates. Basilios was captured by pirates. um And then Saint Nicholas appeared to him. And next thing the boy knew is he was standing outside his house.
00:29:08
Speaker
And then Saint Nicholas was gone. And his parents are like, how'd you escape the pirates? And he said, Saint Nicholas rescued me. And there he was. so um So that's a really neat story too. So there's these stories of his kind of miraculous intercession to Again, not just giving gifts to children, um but also we're defending them, protecting them from terrible evils. um So which very much contributes then yeah to him as a a care, a guardian, a defender of children, as he's so associated with children, of course, in the Christmas season.
00:29:41
Speaker
And this also goes along with how we as Catholics collectively canonize saints. There's, i mean, for Mother Teresa or car st Carlo Acutis, there's a ah documented miracles that would have happened. And in our day, it's usually something... um ah maybe not financial, but almost always medical and life-saving.
00:30:04
Speaker
And in 300, 400 years, if we, humanity is still here, ah there will be legends around Mother Teresa and St. Therese and different things like that. So it's cool how ah the the stories and the myths and legends and then truth also kind of interweave to be this big, beautiful story.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah. And Exactly what you said too. I mean, we sometimes hear these, especially in these more ancient accounts of these saints doing these wondrous things and we think, oh, that's just exaggeration and so on. And I mean, there is maybe something to be said about, you know, how these kind of legendary stories that were maybe expanded to that maybe are fantastical, but they, but first of all, they still communicate a truth about who that saint was or is. But two,
00:30:53
Speaker
but two to your point is, but we do have modern documented miracles. Like we said, in recent canonizations, they have scientifically researched and thus declared miracles, ah like every saint that's been canonized in the last hundred years, and there's been hundreds of them, and they each have at least two miracles that have been verified to them. I mean, that is like, just in the last century, there have been thousands of documented miracles, right? And a lot of people don't think about that. So it's easy in our modern age to be very skeptical
00:31:24
Speaker
about these ancient stories of saints doing miraculous things, but they do happen. it Miracles ah have happened. They happen in the life of Christ. They happen the life the saints. They happen in our modern day, you know? So, and it just goes to show God at work, which kind of nicely transitions us into the final thing I wanted to say about him is um Nicholas, um in some ah traditions of Christianity, received this title as that he was a wonder worker,
00:31:53
Speaker
Nicholas, the wonder worker, precisely because there are all these like miraculous things that seem to happen around him. Um, we already kind of talked about the multiplying of grain, um, him, you know, praying over and bringing three dead children back to life, uh, that miraculous apparition and saving of Basilios.
00:32:12
Speaker
Um, there's also a story of other miraculous healings of him praying over people and them being healed. Uh, but also, um even after his death, you know, people going to praying in this tomb and receiving miraculous healings.
00:32:26
Speaker
ah There's also an account from his life of him ah saving sailors from a storm at sea. Like there were sailors that were out and about and St. Nicholas prayed for them and the sea calmed, you know, just like our Lord as well. So, um so that he did have a reputation both in his life and after his life as a wonder worker saint who did these great, incredible things.
00:32:50
Speaker
ah So before we kind of โ that's kind of what I wanted to say before we get into St. Nicholas and how he became more commonly known as Santa Claus. um I wanted to lay the foundation that he is of these things, a zealous defender of the faith, a defender of the poor and innocent, um defender of children, and a miraculous wonder worker. So just this man himself in his lifetime as a bishop um did these incredible, miraculous wonders. seemingly magical things, right? i mean, we sometimes
Transformation to Santa Claus
00:33:22
Speaker
associate Santa Claus with these kind of magical, wondrous things.
00:33:26
Speaker
But indeed, like St. Nicholas has these, and i I use magic here loosely, but these these wondrous things, you know seemingly like magical things of all these incredible ways and things he did and incredible things the Lord did in his life.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think C.S. Lewis may... may think May see that magic and grace and God's power aren't too far off. who Yeah, that they're maybe more close than we think. Yes.
00:33:57
Speaker
Yeah. And some of this, speaking of modern miracles, you know i just when I learned about St. Nicholas too, I think of St. Padre Pio, you know who, ah ah for those who don't know, for our listeners, he was kind of a modern saint. He lived in the, but I think he died in the nineteen fifty s 79. just in this past century.
00:34:18
Speaker
And again, when people are kind of skeptical in thinking, oh, all those miraculous things, those are just made up things. And then here's this guy in our modern age who does all the, like all these wondrous things happen to him. You know, he was known for, by locating, for having mysterious words of knowledge, for miraculous healings, all in his own lifetime. And that's someone in our modern century, this past century. So, so when you have things like that, you realize that maybe these,
00:34:43
Speaker
um things around St. Nicholas, while incredible wonders and miraculous are not so unrealistic, you know, um but in fact, very well could all have happened.
00:34:54
Speaker
And the thing that you have in common with Padre Pio and Mother Teresa and St. Nicholas himself is that you are a baptized disciple of Christ. And the point is that you, by cooperating with the Holy Spirit, can also do these things.
00:35:12
Speaker
That's not crazy. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Try praying over someone, someone who's sick, put your hands on them and ask God to heal them and see what happens. Ask them first. If you can put them first, yes. don Don't just touch without permission. Yes. yeah That's awkward. Certainly. with Yeah. With their permission, of course.
00:35:32
Speaker
um But yes, but I think we sometimes write God off in the wonder things he can do ah when God can indeed do more than we can ask for. Imagine St. Paul says. I remember again somewhere during my internship, I was with Father Nicholas March, and a child in class asked him once, like, why doesn't God do miracles like he did in the Bible?
00:35:55
Speaker
And Father Nick gets this really serious look on his face and is like, are you sure he doesn't? It was great. Amen.
00:36:06
Speaker
There you go. Precisely. he does do more than we realize. Yeah. Are you sure he doesn't? I love that. so um So the final piece I just wanted to, and I'll just go over this briefly, is just talking about kind of bridging them the St. Nicholas to the Santa Claus that many people know today. so um And just kind of how devotions to St. Nicholas spread. So as I said, he was in modern Turkey, um but then in the Russia was um when
00:36:39
Speaker
ah russia ah the kind of the Russian kingdom with Prince Vladimir became Christian and accepted Christianity. um The Russian Christians in the 900s, you know, around the turn of millen millennium, around the year 1000, they were very attracted to wonder worker saints. So like stories of monks who had miraculous things and um being in what is now modern day Turkey would have been more a part of the tradition of what we call Eastern Christianity.
00:37:10
Speaker
is kind of Eastern and Western Christianity, or we might call Roman and Byzantine Christianity, in particular Byzantine Christianity, which the Russians would have been a part of. Nicholas was was very popular for them, and especially these stories of his being a wonder worker. And from there, it spread into Scandinavia.
00:37:28
Speaker
So you get into Denmark, and Scandinavia includes Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, um those areas. And from there, kind of made its way to ah Netherlands, to Dutch areas, and England, um where kind of the idea of St. Nicholas became very popular. Of course, his feast day is in December, December 6th, so associated with the days leading up to Christmas, and as was said, that his life was very much wrapped in the mystery of Christmas, in many ways, St. Nicholas was. So so more more became popular, and then really, the idea of St. Nicholas, or Santa Niklaus, which became Santa Claus in the Dutch.
00:38:08
Speaker
Oh, that's how it happened. Yes, Santa Niklaus, or shortened to Santa Claus. Yeah. Santa Claus, as we say it. And particularly how that came kind of into our cultural idea in the United States is it was particularly through um Santa Niklaus became very popular popular in like among Dutch immigrants, the Netherlands, um who came over to the the New World, the United States, and founded a city called New Amsterdam.
00:38:39
Speaker
um Excuse me. the Yeah, the Netherlands. Yeah. And they found a new Amsterdam, which is now known as New York. So it's like that one song. Do you know that song that says even old New York was once new Amsterdam?
00:38:54
Speaker
I do not. Okay. Yes. Even old New York was once new Amsterdam. Why they change it, I can't say. Anyways. it's from of a song called Istanbul. Istanbul was it? Istanbul Constantinople? Okay. Anyways, I digress. The point is then of course it became very popular in New York. And then there was a lot of modern things in then modern New York that played into that. And, and along these ways, is it, as St. Nicholas passed through these kind of these different cultures, kind of some other cultural traditions or legends got added onto him.
00:39:29
Speaker
So like in Scandinavia, you know because they traveled by sleigh in the wintertime, started associating him with traveling with sleigh and with reindeer. um you know And then it kind of and kind of became blended with some of their lore of elves and so on, as they had in kind of Scandinavian folklore and and so on. And so all those things kind of became added on.
00:39:50
Speaker
And then fast forward to like early 1900s New York, and people also decided to, with you know kind of the beginning of printing of Christmas cards and marketing, Then this jolly figure in a red suit i became you're kind of a popular image of then this Santa Claus. So through Coca-Cola and other things.
00:40:11
Speaker
ah And of course, one of the things that made him famous was actually in the 1800s, a famous poem by a man named Clement Clark Moore. um Do you know what what famous poem Clement Clark Moore wrote about St. Nicholas?
00:40:26
Speaker
um Was it about a knight? It was about a night, yes. Indeed. When was this night? ah In 1823, he wrote ah famously about a night before Christmas. Oh, I've heard that one. Yes, Clement Clark Moore wrote the famous poem, "'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." And, of course, it was originally titled A Visit from St. Nicholas, but that then kind of depicts, that particular poem depicts St. Nicholas as this more round, jolly elf creature
00:40:59
Speaker
ah who comes and and brings us things and gives us the name of the reindeer on Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer, on on Donner, on Blitzen. so And because of the Scandinavian roots, the sleigh, that's where that came from. Yeah, yeah. So it was kind of it was kind of a ah all these things kind of adding on through Scandinavia, through the Netherlands, through England.
00:41:19
Speaker
um And some kind of had this depiction of, like in England, for example, this depiction of what they called Father Christmas, who was just kind of meant to be an artistic depiction of sort of the spirit of Christmas.
00:41:31
Speaker
um We might think of like a Christmas Carol. you know Charles Dickens is a Christmas Carol. He had the the ghost of Christmas present, who's kind of this large jolly fellow with a big robe and holly crown and and so on.
00:41:45
Speaker
ah Someone may have seen movies or read the books. um And so that also kind of got added on to this image of St. Nicholas, kind of some of these images of Father Christmas.
00:41:57
Speaker
So it's kind of ah a variety of things. I mean, we could spend a lot of time dissecting each of those, but the point is, it's just these other things got attached on. How did we get, do you know how we got to the list making thing, the naughty nice thing?
00:42:11
Speaker
Oh, um I think it was very simply like a lot of those things with children. um You know, I mean, just as the the legend developed of, okay, St. Nicholas is kind of going to come and leave you gifts. Of course, is the idea of, well, you know, if you're not good, he won't bring you gifts, right? To teach children. I mean, I think it just became a way of teaching children because there's other forms of that too you in different cultures, you know, about, you know, being naughty and nice. So I think that just became that he was a way that parents used as kind of you teaching children that good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior is punished, you know. So I bring you a gift of your good or if you're bad or naughty, then also give you a lump of coal.
00:42:51
Speaker
um which is ah actually a very practical gift. It's very useful, yeah. yes Because of course in midwinter when it's cold, like a lump of coal is actually very practical, but ah but it's not very fun.
00:43:03
Speaker
so Right. Yeah. So, and then of course, modern Hollywood movies and so on, and adds on more and more things and into the Santa Claus ah we know today in many ways.
00:43:16
Speaker
Hmm. So, my, maybe kind of my final word on this, I want to say is, ah um and again, so parents, if you're listening with children, this may be the part you want to listen to first before you're, depending on your different traditions or customs around St. Nicholas, Santa Claus. You may want to listen to first before you have your children listen. But I will say this, Father Jacob, I remember I loved, as a child, our family did celebrate Santa Claus. We had the custom, the tradition that Santa Claus brought gifts, and
00:43:49
Speaker
I was just enthralled with this magical figure of joy um who brought all these things. And I wrote him letters. He even wrote me back. I wrote a letter asking him to wake me up so I could see him and so on.
00:44:03
Speaker
And then i was very sad when my parents said, oh, no, he's not really real. It's just us. And I was very sad.
00:44:13
Speaker
However, as I grew older and i grew more into my Catholic faith, um and came to fall in love with the beauty and the the the depth and richness of our Catholic faith and Catholicism and the ways the Lord works in and through that, um i
St. Nicholas Rediscovered: Personal Reflections
00:44:30
Speaker
came to the realization that indeed um Santa Claus is in fact real, right? and Because as I was saying before, we believe in the community of saints like this this wondrous, incredible figure who
00:44:45
Speaker
does all these like seemingly magical, wondrous things that's connected to Christmas isn't just a made-up thing. yeah He's, in fact, a real person. He's a saint with whom I can have a relationship with. And so that like all those child desires of wanting to know this man and connect with him, it's like it was like as I grew up, I re-found.
00:45:07
Speaker
it was re-gifted. My Catholic faith re-gifted me Santa Claus, if you will. Wow. But now with so so much more depth and richness, right? That, okay, there's these fun magical tales about him, but like, indeed, he is an incredible human being, right? For with who the Lord did these incredible wondrous things. And the more I learned about it, how appropriate it is that he truly is a man who's shaped by the mystery of Christmas.
00:45:33
Speaker
That that was a core mystery that shaped his life and all he said and did and taught. um And all the miraculous ways the war Lord worked through him. ah and he's my brother and my friend, right? Because he's a fellow saint in Christ, right? And he's alive in Christ.
00:45:50
Speaker
And I can ask him to pray for me and intercede for me. um And so I think it's very much, again, I kind of started at the beginning saying how I remember as a youth, I had some Christian friends who were like, we just need to get rid of Santa Claus because that's how we're going to get back to the real meaning of the season.
00:46:09
Speaker
But I think rather, It's the idea of we just need to relearn about Santa Claus and reclaim and redeem him and recognize that, no, he is in fact a man whose whole life points to Jesus Christ and the mystery of the incarnation.
00:46:23
Speaker
ah And I
Conclusion and Creative Stories Announcement
00:46:24
Speaker
feel so blessed as a Catholic Christian that I know Santa Claus is real and now a deeper and more real way than I under ever understood as a child.
00:46:34
Speaker
So that's what I wanted to say about St. Nicholas today. Well, that's beautiful. Like when your parents say it was just us. Well, that's kind of the beauty of hearing charity and joy is that it's just us. I mean, the apostles could have gone in their preaching and been like, yeah, it's just us. Like, yeah, but it's us with the Holy Spirit.
00:46:55
Speaker
yeah That reminds me of C.S. Lewis, again, has a quote and he says, ah how how's it go?
00:47:04
Speaker
As a result, you're already too old. He's writing to his goddaughter. You're probably too old for fairy tales by the time this is written. But someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
00:47:16
Speaker
i love that line. fathered kevin Yes. Yes. Amen. You're now old enough to ah know that Santa Claus is real. Yep.
00:47:26
Speaker
To believe in Santa Claus again. Amen. Hey, how did we get to, what's Chris Kringle? I know that's a name that is also thrown around as well. Yeah, that's an interesting one. um The short answer is there was ah there were some groups of, well, particularly there was a movement in, i think in Protestant Christianity. And this would have been shortly after the Reformation since, you know, one of the Protestant things is they kind of did away with this idea of like praying to saints or asking saints to pray for us.
00:47:56
Speaker
Um, so there was an attempt to sort of, rather than having people, you know, go to Santa Claus for prayers or asking him for gifts, the movement of the Christ child, or in German, it would have been Christ Kindle or Christ Kindle, excuse me, I think is the German of it. So this would have been like, like German Lutheranism kind of thing.
00:48:17
Speaker
Um, so Christ Kindle, uh, from my research then is then that, they kind of tried to use that as a way to get rid of Santa Claus, but then that just transferred onto Santa Claus and gave a mispronunciation to Chris Kringle.
00:48:31
Speaker
Um, that's one possibility of how Chris Kringle, um, the other thing is then a Kringle itself. Fun fact, um, is a treat, uh, Kringle or Kringle, uh, that I think is just the, I think it's the Dutch word for like a, a twisted thing or a not.
00:48:50
Speaker
Um, because there was a pastry that they would serve that would be kind of like ah twisted. um But some also saw that twisted pastry or twisted dough that they thought looked like praying hands. So another variation is they called it a pretzel, which means of praying hands. And so these pretzel-shaped pastries, what we think of a pretzel now, um or a kringle or kringle, was a twisted pastry of that...
00:49:18
Speaker
Anyways, that also became, I think, associated with like some Christmas treats or something. Wait, so a pretzel was originated as praying hands? Yes, I think that's what the word pretzel means. is It comes from the word to mean to pray. The way it's twisted, it's like the way it's whoops the way it's twisted it's like folded in prayer kind of things is what it was originally made to look like or something like that. I didn't know that. Okay. That's yeah. There's a lot of secret stuff going, okay. I'm opening a bag of Doritos. Is there some theological truth behind that? You never know. um
00:49:49
Speaker
it's so much Rather than the arm wrestling comic that you talked about at the beginning and seeing this duality and this, this war, the I think it's cool to think about um that. Yeah.
00:50:03
Speaker
when you open and receive, give and receive gifts on this coming Christmas and see Santa Claus imagery, um don't think that it is trying to kick Christ out, but know that, I mean, Jesus is secretly traveling in all of those kind of like how he secretly invaded Satan's kingdom through Mary's womb, on that all these things have have root in culture and and shared shared history.
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. So, so yeah, I hope for our listeners, when you see Santa Claus imagery, this Christmas season, you see a man whose life was driven by Christ and whose whole life is oriented towards and points people towards Christ, particularly in the mystery of the true mystery, the true meaning of Christmas, of the incarnation of God being born into the world, the all powerful almighty God being born into the world, uh, as a little humble babe in a manger,
00:50:59
Speaker
dwindled himself from infinity to infancy ah so he could come into the world and save us. Yeah, I think that's a lot cooler than elf on a shelf. Amen. I agree.
00:51:11
Speaker
All right. Well, um those are some great points about St. Nicholas and Santa Claus. Thank you so much for sharing all those with us. And i hope you all have a blessed Advent, a Merry Christmas, and I will see you in the Eucharist.
00:51:43
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening to this episode all about St. Nicholas. I'd like to tell you that not only is Father Kevin Earlywine the talented co-host of the DeBucharistic Revival podcast, he also has a wild imagination, a love of fantasy, and a gift for creative writing. Starting on December 17th, 2025, I'm going to be uploading, in parts,
00:52:04
Speaker
The Quest of St. Nicholas and The Light of St. Lucie, both exciting and original children's fireside tales written by Father Kevin Earlywine. You can find them on YouTube by searching FR Jacob Rouse, The Quest for St. Nicholas.