Saint Nicholas | Santa Claus | Christmas | Serial Biography | Teens
3 — Saint Nicholas: Amazing Kid & Teen
“Birth Year”: St. Nick’s True Life & Connection to Christmas
Which Year Was Saint Nicholas Born? It took some deep digging to find the answer — turns out it wasn’t as hard as it seemed!
Recap: In the previous chapter, “The Day Nicholas Was Born (A Recreation),” we delved into the dramatic events surrounding Nicholas’s birth. After years of longing for a child and enduring imprisonment for their faith, Nicholas’s parents faced immense challenges. The fact that Nicholas was not only born but also conceived during such a tumultuous time was nothing short of a miracle.
Now, fact-loving David, the teenager reading and editing with me, “Saint Nicholas: Amazing Kid & Teen,” during his Christmas holiday, is excited to discover that the actual year of Nicholas’s birth can be pinpointed through investigative research.
Cracking the Code: Santa’s Birth Year
“Well,” I answered David’s question, “as amazing as it might seem, we don’t know the exact day, month, or even the year in which Saint Nicholas was born.”
“Wait.” David stopped me with a quizzical frown. “Not even the year? Aren’t births on record in public archives or something?”
I smiled. “Not from the third century.”
“Third century…? Hang on a second,” he counted on his fingers, reminding me that although excellent at English, it was after all, his second language. “From 0 to 100 AD is the first century; from 100 to 200 is the second century, so from 200 to 300 is the third century. We’re in the twenty-first century… Wow!” he whistled out, “that is a long time ago… Okay, so the day he was born and the month really aren’t that important. But the year is. So how do we figure out which one, out of those hundred years, he was born?”
I liked how David included himself in the search now. “This is where investigative journalism comes in.”
“Okay,” he nodded. “I guess we start with what scholars say is the year of his birth. What do they say?” he asked.
“Anywhere from AD 250 to AD 280.”
“But that’s 30 years!”
“Exactly. Looking back more than 1,700 years it might not seem like much. But in the life of one man…”
“ — and in the timeline of history, a lot can happen in thirty years,” David agreed.
“Right again.”
“So, from your investigation into his life and times, which year do you believe he was born?”
“I go with those historians who think it AD 250.”
“Why?” David asked in the direct way of young people.
“Four main reasons.”
“First,” he prompted, and held up a finger.
“First, it’s commonly accepted that Nicholas was born during a period of intense, empire-wide persecution of Christians.”
“But from 251 to 303 there were no empire-wide persecutions,” David said.
Now I was impressed. “How do you know that?”
“We just studied it in history.” After a couple of quick clicks on the keyboard he pulled up a chart of the Roman emperors. He zeroed in on those of the third century. “There were small persecutions. But just in isolated areas — ”
I pointed to the bust of Emperor Valerian who ruled from AD 253–260. “ — such as during the later years of the Emperor Valerian’s rule.”
“Yes.”
With my pencil I indicated the likeness of a man who ruled a few years before. “But do you know what happened when Emperor Decius was emperor?”
“Empire-wide persecution,” David stated. “He was emperor from AD 249 to 251.” He highlighted those years on the screen then looked over at me. “But why did he persecute Christians all over the empire?”
“Either in reaction to the previous regime of Emperor Philip the Arab — ”
David quickly found that huge, bear of a man’s bust. “ — who was emperor from AD 244–249. My teacher said he might have been a Christian.”
“Correct.”
“So, Decius didn’t like that.”
“It was a complicated time, David. A time when many people were superstitious. And the leaders of the government saw the Christian Church being successful, and their mighty Roman government not, as something against them, something to be wary of.”
“So, Decius persecuted Christians as a political move, to show others that he was patriotic?”
“Exactly, and also for superstitious reasons — ”
“ — he needed a scapegoat for the problems going on around the empire — ”
“Right again. And also for economic reasons.”
“Economic?” A quizzical frown cut across David smooth forehead. “How could persecuting Christians be good economically?”
“Well, whenever Christians were charged with being against the empire because of their belief all their wealth, and that of their whole family, was taken.”
“Taken?” he exclaimed. “What do you mean?”
“Confiscated, absconded by the government.”
“What? Everything?” David looked around at his very beautiful and comfortable home. “Not their houses?”
“Everything. Including — in many cases — their lives.”
“Wait! Was it during this persecution,” he looked back at the highlighted area, “that Nicholas’ mother, Joanna, was thrown into a dungeon and his father’s fingers were broken?”
“You’ve got it.”
“So the timing of the empire-wide persecution is one of the reasons for the 250 AD birth. Because it is accepted by most all historic accounts about Nicholas’ life that his parents suffered during an empire-wide persecution before he was born?”
“Right.”
David nodded. “Good point. Now, for reason number two,” he held up two fingers.
“For two, let’s continue to read what I’ve already written.” I pointed out the location on the computer screen and nodding, David quickly started reading.
After Valerian died in 260 his son, the Emperor Gallienus — who had been co-emperor with his father but was now sole emperor — decreed tolerance toward Christians.
It was a policy that was continued, with only a few outbreaks, throughout the entire Empire for nearly forty years.
This meant, Nicholas would have had the opportunity to grow and learn unbothered by persecutions. By the time of the Emperor Diocletian’s terrible and much documented empire-wide persecution in AD 303, Nicholas was more than fifty years old.
David paused and looked at me. “That makes sense,” he said. “Kids can’t learn if they have to worry about being thrown into a dungeon. Three?” David asked and held up three fingers.
“Three. Given the character of Emperor Constantine the Great — ”
“Wait,” David interrupted to scroll through the timeline of Roman emperors. “He’s not in the third century.”
“He was born in the third century — AD 272 — but ruled in the fourth. Go to AD 306.”
He did. Then his eyes opened wide as he continued to scroll and scroll and scroll through the timeline. “He ruled until AD 337!”
“He was an amazing emperor. But he’s the subject of another story.”
“Wait, you’ve written about Constantine the Great, too?”
“Yep.”
“Why? Why about these two guys from so long ago?”
“Because both have impacted our world in a way few today realize. A great way. They were “lynchpins” in history.”
“Lynchpins…” he repeated. “I know that term from a detective show I was watching with my dad the other day. It means, ‘a person who affects the outcome of history and that world history would have been totally different without them.’”
“That’s it.”
“So, how did Constantine the Great’s character help you decide on the date of Nicholas’ birth?” He laughed. “Sorry, Mrs. Melanie, but that seems a bit of funny investigative reporting.”
“Well,” I motioned for him to continue reading. “Have a look and tell me if you still think it’s funny.”
Nicholas would have had to have been much older than Emperor Constantine for the impact of Constantine’s well-recorded, miraculous meeting with Nicholas in the third decade of the fourth century — about AD 335 — to have affected the emperor as it did.
David paused and looking over at me asked with a dubious frown, “Miraculous meeting?”
“Yes. In a nutshell, Nicholas came to him in a dream and told him he was being tricked into executing three innocent men. By staying the execution of those men, who were generals, history was forever changed. In the right way. ”
“Cool…in a dream… “ he mused. But then suddenly, “Mrs. Melanie, do you believe in miracles?”
“Well, David. I’ve seen too many amazing things not to believe in them.”
“Such as…?”
“Such as…one day, when my son was five, an older boy threw a rock, about the size of a large man’s fist, high up in the air. It was coming down really hard and fast and heading straight for the top of my son’s head. I shouted out, ‘Dear Lord!’ the only prayer I had time for. And right before my eyes, just before the rock was about to hit my son on the top of his head, it split in half. One of those halves only grazed the side of my son’s head.” I touched my temple. “Here. The other didn’t hit him at all.”
David’ mouth hung open. “Seriously? It broke like a laser zapped it?!”
“Exactly.”
“Cool. Okay, so back to the story.”
I loved children and teens! Unlike adults, they didn’t need much proof that miracles happen; maybe because they were still so close to that place of beginnings…?
We know for sure that Emperor Constantine was born in AD 272. A two-year age difference with Nicholas, had Nicholas been born in 270 — one of the other major dates put forward as the year of his birth — would not have been sufficient to make an impression on the emperor. People were respecters of age in Late Antiquity —
David paused and looked at me quizzically. “Late Antiquity?”
“The period from roughly the end of the third century to the seventh — or eighth — century.”
He nodded and went back to reading.
— and Constantine’s very generous and patient way in dealing with his elderly father-in-law — the former emperor, Maximian, who meant him ill and even tried to kill him — proves that Emperor Constantine was no exception.
“I agree with this. Constantine and Nicholas couldn’t have been the same age. I wouldn’t listen to someone my own age. But I would listen to my father if he ‘visited’ me in a dream,” David pronounced his agreement, and holding up four fingers, continued reading.
Four. Both oral and written tradition tells us that Nicholas was an old man at the First Ecumenical Council of AD 325 when he struck the face of Arius, the instigator of the Arian Heresy. A respected clergyman of seventy-five years could have “gotten away” with doing such a thing much more readily than a younger man.
“Wait.” David stopped. “He was a pastor — a priest — and he hit the other man? The man named Arius?”
I nodded. “Actually, Nicholas was an archbishop then and Arius was a priest. But although a priest, Arius really wasn’t a Christian. He was perverting the truth about Christ’s nature. And because Arius was charismatic, and made a lot of money for his followers, he was getting away with it.”
“So, Old Man Nicholas let him have it.”
“Yes,” I couldn’t help laughing. “‘Old Man’ Nicholas certainly did. Even though it meant he could have been punished very badly for doing so.”
“But he wasn’t?”
“He was. At first. None of the clergy liked a bishop hitting a priest. So they…defrocked him.”
“Defrocked? That sounds bad. Like they cut off something…”
I smiled and explained. “That’s the clerical term for sacking a pastor in the Church.”
“Sacked him?” David frowned. “You mean they fired him?”
“Yep.”
“So he was no longer a bishop? Or a priest?”
I smiled. “Don’t worry. How they changed their minds is amazing. Literally. Everyone knew Nicholas was a fine man and had been all his life. Like I said, he was seventy-five-years old — ”
“ — really old for those days.”
“Right. And most knew that Arius wasn’t a good man — he was coming up with his own belief about Christ — something that went against the Bible.”
“That’s bad. Why’d Arius do it?”
“Probably one reason is he wanted to make a name for himself. At any cost.”
“So, the fact that Nicholas was old, and well known, would have protected him from being punished.”
“Well, it definitely didn’t hurt. Had he been younger he would have been punished: much more severely than just being fired for a day or so and imprisoned.”
David nodded. “Okay. So, the logical year that Nicholas was born was…AD 250. No other time would work when looking at the evidence we have about his life.”
“Exactly.”
“Good. So now, do we know where he was born?” he asked and looked again at the title of the second chapter. “The Roman Empire was a pretty big place.”
“Read on!”
Interesting Facts
A recap of some of the important dates mentioned above:
244–249 Emperor Philip the Arab
249–251 Emperor Decius
250 Nicholas born
253–260 Emperor Valerian
272 Constantine the Great born
284–305 Emperor Diocletian
306/7–337 Emperor Constantine the Great
325 The First Ecumenical Council
A Note from the Author
Saint Nicholas’ amazing biography just gets better and better as we get into it. After all, he’s still just an infant — just wait until he starts talking and doing acts of kindness and caring for those stricken by plague, etc.. He lived a very long and remarkable life: a real life that is much more than just giving gifts to children at Christmas (although he did that too!).
