by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
“You were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith, an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence…” (Troparion [hymn of the day] for St. Nicholas)
Having just once again celebrated the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia (Dec. 6), it is crucial for us to reflect on the meaning of this great saint’s life in the Church. Though most depictions of St. Nicholas in our popular culture are mere caricatures of reality – e.g., Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, etc. – the fact that St. Nicholas persists in our collective consciousness at all bespeaks his true greatness which cannot be denied, even by unbelievers. Who is this man, and what lessons can we learn from the real Santa Claus?
- Saint Nicholas is a staunch defender of the Orthodox Christian Faith.
Lesson number one from Saint Nicholas is to confess the Orthodox Christian Faith in one God the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and our eternal salvation worked by the Son of God in the flesh, the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Any mention of Santa Claus devoid of his confession of the Orthodox Faith is a lie, pure and simple.
Saint Nicholas was one of the 318 bishops present at the First Ecumenical (“world-wide”) Council in the city of Nicea in the year 325. At this Council the heretic Arius, a priest from Alexandria, Egypt, was flatly condemned, and the Creed we confess every week was promulgated for use in the entire Church.
Saint Nicholas, who as a Priest had been imprisoned for 10 years because of his confession of the Christian Faith, became so enraged at Arius’s error that he struck the heretic at the Council. Being forbidden as a bishop to strike anyone, Saint Nicholas was sequestered by the other bishops until a verdict could be rendered in reply to Nicholas’s action. Both Christ Himself and His Mother, the Theotokos, appeared to the bishops re-instating the repentant Bishop Nicholas.
Needless to say, Saint Nicholas is a staunch defender of the Orthodox Christian Faith. The two are inseparable, if we’re considering the real Santa Claus.
- Saint Nicholas leads the Church in the worship of the Holy Trinity.
Saint Nicholas was a bishop of the Church. He eventually served as the Archbishop of the Church in the city of Myra in the province of Lycia (southern coast of modern-day Turkey).
As an Orthodox Bishop, Saint Nicholas’s primary responsibility was to preside at the Divine Liturgy in which the Church, the Body of Christ, is manifested at Holy Communion. Thus Saint Nicholas led and continues to lead the Church in the worship of God the Holy Trinity because he is a faithful bishop.
Think of the contrast here with the popular, secular understanding of Santa Claus’s duties: driving a sleigh from the North Pole pulled by flying reindeer, delivering toys to good boys and girls on Christmas Eve, climbing down chimneys, working his magic with elfin helpers, pausing for photo ops while holding court in shopping malls. In the secular milieu, Santa Claus has no connection to the episcopacy (being a bishop) whatsoever. Instead of leading the worship of God, popular Santa promotes superstition, indulges personal fantasy, and is an agent of unbridled greed (i.e., idolatry; see Col. 3:5).
The real Santa Claus – Saint Nicholas – takes his place first and foremost at the Altar of God’s Church teaching the Word of God, exclaiming the wonders of God in prayer, and distributing Holy Communion to the faithful. Bishop Nicholas is a icon of Christ the Great High Priest, “the Shepherd and Bishop” of our souls (1 Pet. 2:25), who brings us into communion with God and each other. Thus our entire lives as Christians become acts of worship to God, Bishop Nicholas leading the way to this incorruptible reality.
- Saint Nicholas prays for us before God, so we ask for his help in prayer.
By his prayers, Saint Nicholas is an active participant in our spiritual life and growth in faith toward God. This was true during his sojourn here on earth, and after his departure from this life and repose in the flesh. By Saint Nicholas’s prayers, storms were stilled and people saved from death. Throughout the history of the Church in the centuries following his repose, solicitation of Saint Nicholas’s prayers has resulted in many crises being averted, people receiving comfort from Christ, and others being saved from certain destruction. Saint Nicholas’s prayers are a constant reality in the Church (hence the presence of an icon of Saint Nicholas in virtually every Orthodox Church on the planet).
How is it the legend grew that Santa Claus knows everything about children’s behavior (whether they’re “naughty or nice”), and that he is able to respond in kind in that knowledge? The fundamental Orthodox truth behind the legend is that the Saint, Bishop Nicholas (along with all the saints), is in fact aware of the lives of the faithful. Because of his communion with God, his transformation and glorification as a truly holy person in Christ, God shares that knowledge with Saint Nicholas for the benefit of the faithful. Saint Nicholas not only prays generically with all the saints to God in heaven, but he prays specifically to God on behalf of various persons on earth.
As the Apostle writes of the Corinthians asking for their prayers: “you also helping together in prayer for us” (2 Cor. 1:11), we ask for the prayers of Saint Nicholas, this great Bishop and intercessor before God, to help us in our struggle for salvation. Saint Nicholas cares not about supplying toys, or baubles, or merely worldly wishes; he isn’t some kind of genie granting us three wishes, whatever our fancy. The real Santa Claus helps us when we request his help in asking God for repentance, forgiveness, faith, love, and anything else that truly brings us closer to God. Saint Nicholas delights in such prayers.
- Saint Nicholas is an instrument of God’s miraculous grace, a wonderworker.
As with his prayers, many miracles of God have been worked through Saint Nicholas for the benefit of many people. Always these miracles were the working of God’s grace for the salvation of the persons involved.
It is common in our society to think of Santa Claus as possessing some kind of magical power independent of God’s grace. Virtually every movie and cartoon depicting Santa Claus attributes magical powers to him, and by magic is understood the manipulation of nature, time, and space for Santa’s own purposes. Once again, magical powers are a caricature of the truly wondrous works of God granted Saint Nicholas in the service of God and his people.
The miracles of God worked through Saint Nicholas are always an expression of the Orthodox Faith he confesses, the worship of the Holy Trinity he leads, and the pure prayers he offers up to God on our behalf in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Because of his profound humility and selfless service of others, his faith, worship, and prayer to God alone, Saint Nicholas is granted by God to work wonders among His people. Thus the wonders worked through Saint Nicholas are never a source of pride, but a testament to the undeserved but so richly given grace of God for sinners.
The greatest wonder of all is the miracle of our salvation in Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin, suffered on the Cross, and rose victorious from the dead on the third day. Saint Nicholas embodies that miracle of Christ; he gave himself completely to Christ in His ministry to God’s people, giving thanks to God with his life and resources having been accounted worthy to be a child of God.
The real Santa Claus continues to work wonders in bringing the grace of God to those in need, and in turn bringing them to God in His everlasting kingdom.
These four lessons show why we refer to Saint Nicholas as “a rule of faith.” His Faith, worship, prayers, and wonderworking are the standard (Gk., kanon, “rule”) by which we measure true life in Christ. May the real Santa Claus be that measure by which we seek genuinely to believe, to worship, to pray, and to abound by God’s grace.
