How Nicholas, Bishop of Myra became Santa Claus

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Tanya and I visited Turkey for the first time in July 2008. We went to an all-inclusive resort near Finike and used the opportunity to go exploring by boat along the coast. Lots to see. An island filled with goats, a city submerged by an earthquake a couple of millenia ago. And Myra, home bishopric of Saint Nicolas. These are pictures we took of Myra and of the ruins of St. Nicholas Cathedral which is now several meters below the surface and was in mist of archeological  recovery and restructuring. 

Tombs in the rock

Amphitheatre

Closeup of tombs in the rock

St. Nicholas Cathedral

St Nicholas Cathedral

St Nicholas Cathedral

For better and more recent pictures go to this website: https://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/kale-church-of-st-nicholas-myra

Where does Santa come from? An article in The Economist

How a miracle-working Greek bishop, Dutch folk figure and early New York icon became the ubiquitous symbol of Christmas.

St Nicholas was a fourth-century Greek bishop, today beloved in many Orthodox Christian countries. In western Europe he became known as the patron saint of children. (One of his supposed deeds was giving dowries to three girls who otherwise would have been forced into prostitution; another was restoring three children to life after they were chopped to pieces and pickled in brine.) His feast day, December 6th, was long one of celebration and gift-giving for the little ones.

The Reformation deprecated the veneration of saints, instead encouraging the Protestant faithful to focus on Jesus. When the English church stopped celebrating St Nicholas’s day, Christmas, a few weeks later, became the main festive December celebration. This would later cause a conflation of St Nicholas with the native Father Christmas, originally a separate figure (often depicted in green robes rather than red

The mystery begins to unravel when you remember another that he bears: St Nick. St Nicholas was a fourth-century Greek bishop, today beloved in many Orthodox Christian countries. In western Europe he became known as the patron saint of children. (One of his supposed deeds was giving dowries to three girls who otherwise would have been forced into prostitution; another was restoring three children to life after they were chopped to pieces and pickled in brine.) His feast day, December 6th, was long one of celebration and gift-giving for the little ones.

But to England’s colonies in America came many Dutch Protestants. Their taboo against venerating saints had weakened somewhat, and so some celebrated the gift-giving Sint Nicolaas, who had become a kind of folk figure with his name shortened to Sinterklaas. From there it is not hard to see how English-speakers around them heard something like “Santa Claus”, first mentioned as an alternative to “St Nicholas” in a newspaper in 1773. Charles Jones, a 20th-century American historian, argued that it was American patriots in New York after the revolution who embraced the celebration of St Nicholas, reaching back to New York’s history as a Dutch colony; a saint associated with the Dutch made a fitting anti-British symbol

The Santa Claus we know and love today is a product of The Night Before Christmas and Coca Cola with a step missing. This Saint Nicholas from mid 19th century served as the precurser to 1932's Coca-Cola Santa Claus. 

Thomas Nast 1880

Merry Christmas to all