Patron Saint of Marriage: Saint Nicholas — and Santa Claus?
Patronage: Young people seeking a spouse, children, sailors
Feast day: December 6
This blog is normally dedicated to married saints, but this month I wanted to talk about a beloved saint who many don’t know is also a patron of marriage — Saint Nicholas. Last month he nearly got a shout-out in my blog for All Saints’ Day, but I felt he deserved a more fleshed-out story. I want to talk about why he is a patron of marriage and then dive into his evolution into the secular Santa Claus.
Nicholas of Myra was orphaned young and gave his inheritance to the poor before devoting his life to the Church through the priesthood (he would later become a bishop). Although he is mainly the patron saint of children, Nicholas of Myra is also patron of young people seeking a spouse. Legend says that Nicholas heard of a father who was trying to marry his three daughters into happy marriages but he could not afford the dowry. At that time, if a father could not afford his daughter’s dowry, she was considered unfit for marriage and would be sold into slavery. Devastated by the thought, their father prayed that they would be spared this fate. In the cover of night, on three separate occasions, Bishop Nicholas secretly threw a bag of gold down their chimney to pay the dowries. The generosity of St. Nicholas gave these women happy marriages, which is how he became a patron saint of young women seeking a spouse.
In this story, the gold bags landed in shoes that were left by the fireplace to keep warm. After hearing of Nicholas’s good deed, children began to leave their shoes by the fireplace in the hope that St. Nicholas would leave something for them, too. This is why we still leave our shoes out on St. Nicholas’s feast day, and in many households chocolate coins are left in memory of the legend.
So how did St. Nicholas of Myra — also known for (literally) fighting heresy — become Santa Claus? As the National Geographic says, “Nicholas was neither fat nor jolly but developed a reputation as a fiery, wiry, and defiant defender of church doctrine during the Great Persecution in 303, when Bibles were burned and priests made to renounce Christianity or face execution.”1
The story of the dowries played a major contribution in St. Nicholas becoming the gift-giver who threw goodies down chimneys. Another legend, which has been less popular in present day but was widely known at the time, said that Nicholas entered an inn whose keeper had murdered three boys; he not only sensed the crime but he also resurrected the boys, which is how he became known as a protector of children.
His feast day, December 6, used to be the great day of celebration for the gift-bringer. His secular imagery evolved into those like a European deity, with a long white beard and the ability to fly. But as a fierce defender of the faith, he also made sure children always chose good.
In the 1500s, this popular treatment of St. Nicholas became problematic — the newly created sects of Christianity that came from the Protestant Reformation did not recognize or venerate saints the same way Catholics did. The children of newly Protestant families still knew the celebration of St. Nicholas’s feast day and still expected to be treated with gifts on December 6. Families decided to make a shift, with the role of gift-giver becoming the newborn Jesus on December 25.
But baby Jesus isn’t as intimidating as Bishop Nicholas, so a helper of Jesus was created loosely based on Nicholas — one who expected good behavior and would severely punish those who misbehaved, with names like “Ru-klaus” (Rough Nicholas), “Aschenklas” (Ashy Nicholas). See where this is going?
This tradition of Ru-klaus and Aschenklas was brought over to the Americas but quickly lost its popularity because it was too similar to other pagan traditions. Nicholas as the child-protecting gift-giver was long lost and a threatening character (who wasn’t much suited to kneel beside the infant Jesus) stood in his place. The gift-giving tradition of the Nativity of Jesus Christ no longer resembled the celebrations of December 6.
In the early 19th Century, in an attempt to make December 25 a family celebration again, St. Nicholas was revived by a series of American poets.
Washington Irving's book Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809) first portrayed Nicholas flying over the rooftops in a wagon and delivering presents to good girls and boys (but the bad children received gifts like switches). Later depictions like the anonymous poem “the Children’s Friend” and Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” (now known as “The Night Before Christmas”) further evolved the depiction of a jolly man who drove a reindeer-led sleigh. Imagery like that of American cartoonist Thomas Nast cemented the way we picture Santa Claus.
And so this jolly version of Saint Nicholas traveled back to Europe to replace the Rough Nicholas and Ashy Nicholas with Père Noël and Father Christmas. Even through attempts to abolish the gift-giver Santa Claus in areas like Stalin’s communist Soviet Union, the people held firmly onto their beloved depictions of St. Nicholas as gift-giver who brought Christmas.
On a personal note, St. Nicholas is very dear to me because he is my husband’s name saint! I won’t get into the reason, but St. Nicholas is also considered the patron saint of sailors. My name is derived from Mary (or specifically Maria), and most closely resembles the devotion of Stella Maris — Star of the Sea. Not to be too cheesy, but we think God likes the match-up of the Patron Saint of Sailors and the Star of the Sea.
St. Nicholas died in Myra on December 6, 343AD. He was originally buried in the Cathedral but in the second century many of his relics were moved to Italy. No cause of death is known and he was canonized long before the Church formalized the canonization process (at which time canonization was left to the local bishop), but we do know his veneration began as early as the 5th Century, as Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II (ruled 401–450) ordered the building of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Myra, built over his burial site.
I hope you remembered to leave your shoes out! Happy Advent! St. Nicholas, pray for us!
