St. Nicholas | Santa Claus | Christmas | Teens
7— St. Nicholas: Amazing Kid & Teen
“Miracles and Fairytales”: St. Nick’s True Life & Connection to Christmas
St. Nick’s true story is even better than the legend!
My fourteen-year-old student, David, is continuing to read and edit, Saint Nicholas: Amazing Kid & Teen (And What He Did!), with me during his Christmas holiday. His fresh perspective is helping me see the manuscript in a whole new light, and it’s definitely improving this book that uncovers the true story about the real man behind the legend of Santa Claus. Teens, including modern ones, truly are amazing. The entire book, “Saint Nicholas: Amazing Kid & Teen, will be available on Medium.
Miracles and Fairytales
So, did such miracles associated with St. Nicholas’ birth and infancy actually occur? For brains weaned upon eighteenth-century fairytales and children’s novels that replaced stories about the wondrous lives of Christian saints, the natural inclination is to object. The idea is to only admit that the childhood miracles of young St. Nick — for instance his baptism and unusual way of nursing from his mother — might have grown into Christian legends in the sense of the extraordinaire in the making.
In the modern sense a legend is, according to Webster’s Dictionary, “a story popularly regarded as historical although not verifiable” — a meaning which emerged after the 1600s. But, digging deeper into the etymology of the word, “legend” was used to describe something that had its root in the medieval reading of prayers in church services that recalled famous Christian lives and the incidents in their lives.
It is actually only during the last couple of hundred years that skepticism found a foothold. Before the “Scientific Age” or “Age of Enlightenment,” Protestants accepted miracles from Christian saints as something natural too. Perhaps the better word might be supernatural.
It is possible that modern European fairy tales, which came into their own during the “Age of Enlightenment,” contributed to this shift. They replaced happenings of God’s people — legends — with whimsical happenings of our minds, which in turn led us to doubt the truth about miracles. (Although coming later in time, the Santa Claus legend can be included in this category.)
For instance, concerning Nicholas, how can anyone today say whether miracles that have been documented orally, pictorially, and through the written word during the last 1,700 didn’t occur?
“That’s true…it’s a bit audacious for anyone to say that actually,” David commented, more to himself than to me as he quickly continued to read.
Many have experienced enough extraordinary things in life to recognize that supernatural wonders can take place today just as they did in ancient times: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
After all, people of the third century would have had a problem with “miracles” performed in modern hospitals.
Tubes of strange, man-made substances called plastic running out of their loved ones’ bodies, being assisted equally by men and women dressed in white, and noisy machines whizzing and bumping and beeping would have seemed like something from, well, the netherworld to them.
On the contrary, they had no problem believing that an infant stood alone (See Chapter 5 — Naming Nicholas).
Indeed, third-century man didn’t see an egotistical display in the occurrence, but rather, God’s direct hand in it. Even more, they counted it as a sign of great things to come from a child through the workings of God.
The people of the third century — and most all centuries up to the twentieth — didn’t possess the “modern medical miracles” we of today do. But perhaps their faith about such deeds, since they weren’t accounted for as it were by science, and subsequently they didn’t rely on a scientific answer, was the greater for it.
“Good point, Mrs. Melanie!” David interjected and laughed. “Yeah…today’s hospitals would have probably looked like torture chambers to third-century man.”
So, again I ask, did these miracles associated with Nicholas’ early life actually occur? Were they miracles of God?
The little girl of much faith who still resides within the “miracle” of my memory chooses to answer “yes,” and combined now with an in-depth, investigative knowledge about Nicholas’ life and times, to believe that it is so.
That marvelous part of me is also very happy to know that there is in existence “God tales” in the form of Life accounts (such as Dimitry of Rostov’s account — see “A Note from Author” below) about amazing early Christians for me to read about just as I once did fairytales.
It is edifying and downright fun to learn how those we refer to as historic “saints,” such as Saint Nicholas, were real people — remarkable often from birth.
But mostly, the Word of God — the Bible — is filled with one inspirational miracle of grace in place of another. “Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given (John 1:16).”
The time from Christ’s first coming until His second coming is the Age of Grace, after all.
It is our time; it is the time in which Saint Nicholas lived, a time when God freely gives miracles to all: A blessed age, the most holy age of all…to this point in the history of the world. And it’s for everyone.
“I really like this!” David exclaimed. “It makes me…happy.”
“I’m glad. I think that’s something miracles do for everyone.”
“Were there any other miracles written about St. Nick’s early childhood?”
“Yes, he was to have been blessed while still in his mother’s womb, and, as we saw in the recreation telling about his birth, after he was born, his mother was immediately free of pain and…she lived. A miracle.”
“Yeah…I guess it was a miracle,” he commented thoughtfully. “She was so sick before.”
“Definitely. And the death rate of women giving birth in those days was very high.”
He nodded. “My mother almost died when I was born.”
“Really?”
“She was much older than when my brother and sister were born. And I was a big baby. She got some sort of infection. They said if it had happened a few years earlier she would have died.”
“So…it was a miracle that you weren’t born earlier?” I suggested.
“Yeah. That’s what my father always said. If it had happened when my brother was born, she wouldn’t have lived.”
“Thank God you were both fine.”
“Yeah. Exactly. You know, I believe miracles happen every day. We just have to keep a look out for them.”
“Well said, David. Well said.”
Interesting Facts
The translation of the “Service, Akathist, Life and Miracles of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker,” from Holy Trinity Monastery Jordanville, New York, 1996 is used extensively in this work. It comes from the complete translation of the “Life and the Miracles of St. Nicholas” as it appears in “The Lives of the Saint” in the Russian Language as set forth according to the guidance of the Menologion of St. Dimitry of Rostov, Moscow, Synodal Press, 1903. The fact that it is from a time before revolutions reshaped the twentieth-century world adds to its reliability.
A Note from the Author
Do you think it’s possible that one of the reasons details about the real Christian hero, Nicholas of Myra, became so confusing is because we were taught fairy-tales about him rather than the real contribution his wealth, scholarship and Christian character actually made to the world? Or maybe it was purely commercial? Definitely during the twentieth century, Santa as a gift giver drove sales on material goods and helped to turn Christmas into a time of expected and even extravagant gift giving.
Regardless, the real Saint Nick is being rediscovered once more. As we delve into his life, we see that his actual time on earth, even as a child and teenager, is far more captivating and has had a much more enduring impact on history — and consequently the world — than the relatively new, fanciful fairy tales about him.
The upcoming chapters provide a deeper insight into the world of young Nicholas, exploring his early environment and the influences that shaped him. We will delve into the significance of House Churches and uncover the origins of Nicholas’ substantial wealth.
