52 Saints ~ Week 51 ~ St. Nicholas of Myra

Although we are now past his Feast day, I wanted to write about this December Saint, because of his association with Christmas, and because my husband, Nick, was born on his Feast day.

There is very little that is really known about St Nicholas, but he has obviously captured the imagination of many Christians, since there are devotions to him in a large number of places.

It is a matter of some sadness that there is no historical record of him being present at the Council of Nicaea, because the legend that he punched, or slapped, the heretic Arius is a great favourite of mine. Not that I'm passive-aggressive or anything. All the same, I can't resist sharing some memes.

I think that second meme is funny, but it may be the case that almost none of those things is true, or at least, not able to be verified. The Catholic Encyclopedia entry is suitably short.

It begins: “Bishop of Myra in Lycia; died 6 December, 345 or 352. Though he is one of the most popular saints in the Greek as well as the Latin Church, there is scarcely anything historically certain about him except that he was Bishop of Myra in the fourth century.

...He is patron of mariners, merchants, bakers, travellers, children...”

Because we have so little to go on, I'm just going to have to go with the tradition of making stuff up. :)

That is, it's a fact that Benjamin Britten wrote a very interesting cantata about St Nicholas, but the lyrics are, at times, hilariously over the top, and were written by Eric Crozier, based on the many legends which sprang up about him. My choir sang this over 20 years ago, and the piece itself is modern and too atonal for me to normally like, but familiarity brought me around, and even after all these years I find it quite moving in many places. I could understand if you didn't want to listen to it much, but I'd like to recommend the second section from (6:00 min) which is sung by the high voices, and a boy soprano soloist. The lyrics to this section are:

The Birth of Nicolas

[CHORUS]
Nicolas was born in answer to prayer
and leaping from his mother’s womb he cried:

[NICOLAS]
God be glorified!

[CHORUS]
Swaddling-bands and crib awaited him there
but Nicolas clapped both his hands and cried:

[NICOLAS]
God be glorified!

[CHORUS]
Innocent and joyful, naked and fair
he came in pride on earth to abide

[NICOLAS]
God be glorified!

[CHORUS]
Water rippled Welcome in the bath-tub by his side
he dived in open-eyed, he swam, he cried:

[NICOLAS]
God be glorified!

[CHORUS]
When he went to church at Christmastide
he climbed up to the font to be baptised

[NICOLAS]
God be glorified!

[CHORUS]
Pilgrims came to kneel and pray by his side
he grew in grace, his name was sanctified

[NICOLAS]
God be glorified!

[CHORUS]
Nicolas grew in innocence and pride
His glory spread in rainbow round the countryside
“Nicolas will be a Saint!” the neighbours cried

[NICOLAS]
God be glorified!

We'll gloss over the problem of a saint being said to grow up in pride! If you decide to listen to the whole thing, you might want to read the lyrics at the same time.

I really loved singing this piece and there is more information at Wikipedia. The final section begins at about 41:40 and features the tenor, St Nicholas, singing about his impending death, while the choir sings the Nunc Dimittus. I still find this very moving.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicolas_(Britten)

Also, I can't help sharing this picture of Father Christmas from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which is probably my favourite.

I wish everyone a blessed Advent and hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

St Nicholas, pray for us.

Louise LaMotte is a friend from Light on Dark Water. Since she lived in Australia at the time we met online, I never thought we would meet in person. I was wrong. She has written here about St. Mary of the Cross, Pope St. Pius X, Fr. Jacques Hamel, Our Lady Undoer of Knots, St. Louise de Marillac, and St. Damien of Molokai.

If you want to see all of the posts in this series, click HERE.