Are you tired of the commercialized myth and ready for the historically-grounded truth about Nicholas of Myra? Discover the real Nicholas—the man behind the legend of Santa Claus. You’ve heard the myths, but now it’s time to uncover the God Honest truth about one of history’s most misunderstood believers. Dive into this educational teaching and meet the real 4th-century bishop that was used for the legend.
The popular image is a delightful fantasy, but the true story of Nicholas of Myra is much more obscure. In this teaching, we dive into the authentic life of Nicholas of Myra. You’ll learn both who he truly was and who he wasn’t.
So join us as we learn the God honest truth about the Bishop Nicholas of Myra, the man behind the legend of Santa Claus.
#SaintNicholas #RealSantaClaus #GodHonestTruth #ChristmasTruth #ChristmasOrigins
Transcript
Teaching Introduction
The cheerful man on the sleigh is a beautiful fiction, but that’s not the actual St. Nicholas who really lived. You think you know Santa’s origin story? Well, you don’t because we’re going to get into that in this particular teaching about St. Nicholas of Myra, the bishop of Myra, a small town on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey. Forget everything you thought you knew about St. Nick. This isn’t a story about a jolly figure. This is the God-honest historical truth about a person who actually existed and who actually lived. So stay tuned for the God-honest truth about Nicholas, Bishop of Myra.
Video Start
All right. So, this teaching or episode is going to be all about the actual historical person Nicholas of Myra, the bishop, the one who the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox and others call, quote unquote, ‘Saint Nicholas.’ So, that’s going to be our draw, our teaching for tonight, continuing in our Christmas in detail series. This is episode number four.
If you’d like more information other than what we present in this particular draw, then the best place to go would be to our website at godhonesttruth.com. Click on the article post for this particular episode and there you’ll be able to find the on-demand video. You’ll be able to find the draw slides that you see here on your screen, but you’ll be able to go through them at your own pace. You’ll also find the notes that we took for this particular research project, and the transcript.
And in addition for this whole series, we’ve been doing some AI-researched academic papers on each particular subject. And we’ve got several different AI research papers on Nicholas of Myra, St. Nicholas of Myra. Go check that out today at godhonesttruth.com. Or an even more convenient way is to go down below in the description and there you’ll find a convenient link that’ll take you directly to our website and that article post. It’s all conveniently located for you down there in the description and that should be there whether you are watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform. So go down there right now and click on it and open up the site today.
Basic Information
Now, this is going to be a rather quick, short, to-the-point kind of teaching because there’s actually not too much in there. In fact, we start going over the basic information about the actual historical person of Nicholas of Myra. And there’s not much to tell about him actually. In fact, most of what we do have is legends and myths and things that were written hundreds of years after he actually lived. And the truth of the matter is it doesn’t matter which demographic you come from, which denomination you come from, there’s very, very little about Nicholas of Myra. And therefore, we know, with any accuracy, very little about Nicholas of Myra.
There’s actually no contemporary writings, meaning there’s no writings during his time that mention Nicholas of Myra. Just about everything we’ve got comes from hundreds of years after he died. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica at britannica.com, quote, “Nicholas’s existence is not attested by any historical document, so nothing certain is known of his life except that he was probably bishop of Myra in the 4th century.” End quote.
And from Brill’s New Pauly: quote, “According to Hagios Nikolaos the text combined the few historical features of the life of Nicholas with details of the life of a presbyter and archimandrite of the same name who first lived at the monastery of Zion and was consecrated bishop of Onara after 545.” End quote.
Some of the things that we do know about Nicholas of Myra for certain, or at least with a high degree of probability, anyway, is that he was born and then was a bishop of a town or a city — I don’t know which one it is — but it’s a place called Myra. And it’s right off the western part of the southern coast of modern-day Turkey. And if you’re watching on the video platforms, you can see here a map showing you where Myra would have been back in the old days. It goes by a different name nowadays, but back during the time of Nicholas in the early 4th century, this is where Myra would have been and where Nicholas would have been a bishop of.
Now, just one tangent real quick. We’re going to be using the word ‘saint,’ but we’re going to be using it rather loosely. The common way to refer to Nicholas that’s come down in custom and tradition — I understand that and accept that. The tradition is to refer to him as St. Nicholas because that’s what, quote unquote, the church called him for hundreds of years. And it just kind of stuck. And that’s what everybody knows him by. So that’s what we’re going to refer to him as.
Even though we do not believe in quote unquote ‘saints’ because people don’t go to heaven when they die. They don’t go to hell when they die for that matter. They just go unconscious, so there’s really no one to pray to. There’s no one to commit miracles except for Yeshua. He’s the only one who is alive right now and in heaven, but no one else. Not Nicholas, not anyone else.
Plus, there are a bunch of people throughout history named Nicholas. There are czars named Nicholas. There are popes named Nicholas. So, it kind of helps to differentiate who it is we’re talking about as well. So, that’s why we use that word ‘Saint’ in front of his name and also the town in which he is known by. And that really narrows it down to the person that we’re talking about so you don’t get confused with anyone else in history. Sorry, that’s just a little bit of tangent.
Yeah, this is where this town of Myra in the southern part of modern-day Turkey is where Nicholas was a bishop of for a while.
Looking on at the Catholic Encyclopedia: quote, “There is scarcely anything historically certain about him except that he was bishop of Myra in the 4th century. Some of the main points in his legend are as follows. He was born at Patara, a city of Lycia in Asia Minor. In his youth, he made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine. Shortly after his return, he became bishop of Myra. Cast into prison during the persecution of Diocletian. He was released after the accession of Constantine and was present at the council of Nicaea. The numerous miracles St. Nicholas is said to have wrought both before and after his death are outgrowths of a long tradition. There is reason to doubt his presence at Nicaea since his name is not mentioned in any of the old lists of bishops that attended this council.” End quote.
And this is something we’re going to run into over and over again in trying to find out who the actual historical person Nicholas of Myra actually was. There’s very little actual historical information about him. Most of the information, or most of the things that we know about him, are legends and myth that comes down to us later on. One of those legends that we’ll get into here in just a bit is his attendance and participation, for lack of a better word, at the council of Nicaea, the very first quote unquote ‘ecumenical council’ — even though it wasn’t actually an ecumenical council, but we’ll get into that story later. That’s the problem we run into in trying to study him. That’s why this brush is going to be rather short because there’s not that much verifiable information about Nicholas of Myra.
Moving on to the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary: quote, “Nicholas was born at Patara circa 300 and served as the bishop of Myra. Late sources uncorroborated by contemporary evidence alleged that Nicholas was imprisoned during Diocletian’s persecution, that he was present at the council of Nicaea in 325, and that he died circa 350. Nicholas eventually became the patron saint of children, sailors, and merchants of Greece and of Russia.” End quote.
And finally, from the Encyclopedia Britannica: quote, “All the accounts that have come down to us are of a purely legendary character, and it is impossible to find any single incident confirmed historically.” End quote.
And there it is again, the problem that we run into when trying to learn about Nicholas of Myra, the actual historical person behind the legend that we know of today as Santa Claus. So basically the things we know for certain is that he actually existed. So Nicholas of Myra actually existed and he was a bishop of a town called Myra sometime in the early 4th century. There is rumor that he might have been at Nicaea though it is unverified. Some of the oldest lists of the names of the people who attended don’t include Nicholas of Myra. Even Athanasius, I think, is the one — it’s in the notes; go look at the notes there. But I think it’s even Athanasius who wrote the names of all the people who attended and voted and all that stuff at Nicaea and does not include Nicholas of Myra. Once again, we don’t even know if this whole story about him being at the council of Nicaea is even true. So once again, this is the headache that you run into when it comes to learning about the actual historical person of quote unquote St. Nicholas.
Legends About Nicholas
But there are some fairly interesting, if I might say even humorous, accounts and legends about Nicholas. And here are some of those that I’ve come across and have put up for your enjoyment tonight. There’s other stories that I didn’t include that are in the notes, so go check those out if you want even more stories about Nicholas of Myra or the legends — the, again, unconfirmed legends.
Starting out from the Encyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature: quote, “What the historical records do not furnish is more than supplied by tradition. The stories of St. Nicholas are numberless, and many of them have even been treated in art. Many acts of such wonderful import are told of him that they may well be believed to be the inspiration of an enthusiastic mind.” End quote.
And a lot of these stories that we’re going to be telling come from the Encyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. They’ve got, for their entry on Nicholas of Myra, a ton of different stories. So, you can go check that out in the notes as well.
But anyway, starting out with one of these stories, or the first story that comes from this particular source about Nicholas of Myra: quote, “According to these legends, Nicholas was born of illustrious Christian parents when they had been many years married without having children. And it was thought that this son was given by God as a reward for the alms which they had bestowed upon the church and the poor as well as for the prayers they had offered up. The very day of his birth, this wonderful child Nicholas arose in his bath on the day he was born and, joining hands, praised God that he had brought him into the world. And from that same day he would only take the breast on Wednesday and Friday, thus knowing how to fast from the time he knew hunger.” End quote.
I’m sorry. That’s something that still I find humor in just about every single time — one day old, just born and he’s praising God with his hands together, comes up out of the birthing tub it looks like, and from day one he’s even fasting on the correct days of the week according to this legend. I mean, it’s hilarious. And from all the information I’ve gone through about Nicholas, it seems like his family was fairly well-to-do. They gave money to the church and all other kinds of things. So, it seems like they were a well-to-do kind of family. And it kind of plays into what Nicholas does later in his life too about giving money to people and especially unmarried women so they don’t have to go into prostitution, stuff like that. But yeah, some of these legends like this — it’s rather outrageous in my personal opinion.
Anyway, moving on. Quote, “On a voyage, a sailor fell overboard and was drowned. But St. Nicholas recovered him and restored his life. And when a storm arose and they were about to perish, the sailors fell at his feet and implored him to save them.” And as he prayed, the storm went down. End quote.
Kind of seems a little familiar there, almost like plagiarizing a bit from the Gospels, but yeah. Moving on. Another story, quote, “At length the bishop of Myra died and a revelation was made to the clergy to the effect that the first man who should come to the church the next morning was the man whom God had chosen for their bishop. So when Nicholas came early to church to pray as was his custom, the clergy led him into the church and consecrated him as bishop.” End quote.
So apparently at the time there was another bishop of Myra and he died — like humans are wont to do — and when they’re trying to find a new bishop or select a new bishop, they’re apparently given this revelation by God that the first person they see the next day is going to be the one that God has chosen to be bishop over Myra. And it just so happens to be Nicholas. And that’s how he got his bishopric, according to this legend anyway. It may not have been how he actually got it in real life, but anyways.
Another story, quote, “At one time, Constantine sent certain tribunes to put down a rebellion in Phrygia. On their journey, they stopped at Myra, and Nicholas invited them to his table. But as they were to take their seats, he heard that the prefect was about to execute three innocent men, and the people were greatly moved there. Then Nicholas hastened to the place of execution, followed by his guests. When he arrived, the men were already kneeling with their eyes bound, and the executioner was ready with his sword. St. Nicholas seized the sword and commanded the men to be released. The tribunes looked on in wonder, but no one dared resist the good bishop. Even the prefect sought the saint’s pardon, which was granted after much hesitation.” End quote.
So, apparently, Nicholas had power over the mighty Roman Empire as well and power to stop executions at his whim. Again, these are all legends. They’re myths. There’s stuff that was written hundreds of years after the actual person lived. So, it’s hard to tell if any part of this is actually true.
Moving on, continuing pretty much with this same story: quote, “It happened that while the tribunes were absent in Phrygia, their enemies poisoned the mind of Constantine against them, so that when they returned to Constantinople, he accused them of treason and threw them into prison, ordering their execution the next day. Then these tribunes called upon St. Nicholas and prayed him to deliver them. That same night, Nicholas appeared to Constantine in a dream and commanded him to release those whom he had imprisoned and threatened him with God’s wrath if he obeyed not. Constantine not only released them, but sent them to Myra to thank St. Nicholas and to present him with a copy of the Gospels, which was written in letters of gold and bound in covers set with pearls and rare jewels.
“Also certain sailors who were in danger of shipwreck on the Aegean Sea called upon Jesus to deliver them for the sake of St. Nicholas and immediately the saint appeared to them saying, ‘Here I am, my sons; put your trust in God whose servant I am and ye shall be saved.’ The sea became calm and he took them into a safe harbor.” End quote.
Some of these legends and myths are, in my opinion, just way out there. So apparently this legend I just read to you is supposedly from the time he was still alive. So apparently while he was still alive, while he’s still flesh and blood walking here on this earth, he was able to go and appear in a dream to the ruler, the leader, the emperor Constantine himself. He appeared in a dream while he was still alive to Constantine and told him to release the men because they’d been falsely accused. And he appeared again while he was still alive before he died. While he’s still alive, he appeared to sailors in trouble on the sea and calmed the sea. Take it as you will, but I’ll refrain from giving my opinion anymore. You already know what I think.
But one more. This comes again from the Encyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Quote, “One legend of St. Nicholas miraculously restoring to life three rich youths who had been murdered, cut up, and concealed in a salting tub by a thievish innkeeper or butcher and whose house they had taken lodging.” End quote.
Now, this one is probably one of my more favorite legends or myths about the actual person Nicholas of Myra. In this particular legend or story, there are three kids — that’s usually how I hear it. It’s three boys who are kidnapped by this evil innkeeper, this evil butcher. I think it’s probably more of a butcher, but anyways, they’re kidnapped by this evil butcher and they are killed. The kids are killed by this evil butcher and then chopped up into pieces and put into a salt barrel or a salt tub. For those of you who don’t know, a salt tub is what they used to help preserve things back in the day. They would have this big cask or this big barrel. And especially butchers, when they would cut up meat, they would put the meat in the barrel, put a layer of salt over it, put another layer of meat, another layer of salt, and so on and so forth until the barrel got full. And that salt being encased would preserve it. And that’s what a salting tub is. And according to this story, that’s what the butcher did with these three youths. He chopped them up after he killed them and put them in these salting tubs.
And according to the legend, the miracle of, quote unquote, St. Nicholas was to restore them, put them all back together — all the pieces like a puzzle — put them all back together and raised them back to life. This is my favorite story of Nicholas because it is so outlandish and is so out of line with what Scripture tells us about resurrections and things like that. Prove me wrong, but look through all of the resurrections in Scripture and none of them have to do with a body being cut up or dismembered. Every single person, every single instance in Scripture, from what I can recall — again, if I’m wrong, let me know and that’s fine; I’d like to be educated if I am wrong — but in every story in the Bible it’s always a whole body that’s being resurrected. And each of these people that were resurrected in Scripture, their bodies were not in the grave or in the tomb long enough to decay or rot. Not Jesus, not Lazarus, not the widow’s son that Elijah raised up, not the man that Peter, I’m sorry, raised in Acts. None of these were dead long enough for their bodies to decay and none of them had to do with dismemberment. So, that should tell you something right there about resurrections in Scripture and how ridiculous this legend of St. Nicholas is because it’s just way out there and way out of line with what Scripture tells us about resurrections.
But once again, form your own opinion. Do your own study and research. Go check out the rest of the information that we’ve provided for you on our website and form your own opinion as to whether any of these legends or myths carry any weight. And again, there’s even more myths and legends about Nicholas of Myra that we have in our notes that we did not put in tonight’s talk. So, if you’d like to know more, check out the notes to read all about that.
Manufactured Myth
Now we start moving into the manufactured myth of Nicholas because from what I can tell in the research, Nicholas was probably an okay guy, a regular everyday kind of guy and bishop, apart from the legends and myths about him. From what you actually hear, he actually was against things like paganism and things like that. So equating him eventually with the Norse god Odin and turning him into Santa Claus — he’d probably be rolling over in his grave right now because of all that. He would have been very much against that.
But anyways, moving on to some of the myths that were manufactured about Nicholas in addition to the ones we’ve already read. This comes from the Encyclopedia Americana. Quote, “He was bishop of Myra, imprisoned during the Diocletian persecution and set at liberty by Constantine the Great. He was present at the council of Nicaea. Nicholas or ‘Old Nick’ being a cant name for the devil. St. Nicholas’s clerks became a cant name for thieves.” End quote.
This is something I run into as well. In medieval times when they had plays and grand productions — you would go to the play with the big binoculars and the fancy hats and dresses and all that before TV — they would come out on stage and the play had a character of the devil or Satan. Before he came out, he would make this announcement and he would say, “Ho ho ho.” And the audience would know who was coming out at that point. And it should be in the notes, but if it’s not, I’ll put it in there — the reference for what I’m telling you right now. What they would call this character is ‘Old Nick.’ That was the name for Satan or the devil in these plays. And that’s where this whole thing comes from in this entry for Nicholas of Myra, talking about how the name Nicholas or ‘Old Nick’ became a cant name for the devil and even went further than that. When people used to say the phrase “St. Nicholas’s clerks,” they were actually referring to thieves — those who did work on behalf of Satan because Satan does all the immoral stuff like lying and stealing and adultery and murder, etc. So “St. Nicholas’s clerks” is kind of a nudge and a nod to thieves as actually being a part of Satan’s plan.
But going on, looking at the Encyclopedia Britannica: quote, “He was bishop of Myra in the time of the emperor Diocletian; was persecuted, tortured for the faith, and kept in prison until the more tolerant reign of Constantine, and was present at the council of Nicaea. It should be observed that this last circumstance is ignored by all the historians and that St. Athanasius, who knew all the notable bishops of the period, never mentions Nicholas Bishop of Myra.” End quote.
That’s another thing — that the whole story of him being at Nicaea, the first quote unquote ‘ecumenical council’ of the church, more than likely did not happen. And this — there’s another story that goes along with him being at Nicaea and that probably didn’t happen either. In fact, it’s 99% certain that that story didn’t happen. We’ll get to that in just a moment.
Looking at the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, quote, “Nicholas eventually became the patron saint of children, sailors, and merchants of Greece and of Russia and was finally transformed in America as Santa Claus.” End quote. Yet another myth come about, based on a guy who lived more than a thousand years before the whole Santa Claus fairy tale was come up with.
Then finally looking at the Catholic Encyclopedia, quote, “In Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, they have the custom of making him the secret purveyor of gifts to children on 6th December, the day on which the church celebrates his feast. In the United States and some other countries, St. Nicholas has become identified with the popular Santa Claus who distributes gifts to children on Christmas Eve. Up to the present day, an oily substance known as manna de St. Nicola, which is highly valued for its medicinal powers, is said to flow from his remains or from his relics.” End quote.
And that’s just rather disturbing. There’s a whole story that goes behind his remains and his relics. There was a church or basilica that was consecrated in Myra in his honor and his remains were put in there for consecration and veneration. Eventually the Saracens, I think, came through and took over the area around Myra and the temple was destroyed, but there were still three monks who guarded the relics and what was left of the church. Later, some other people came along and took those relics — those remains of Nicholas of Myra — and went to Bari (B A R I). And that’s supposedly where those relics are now.
But it is said that once they moved to Bari, an oily substance started coming out of his relics where his body was, and it was claimed to have medicinal powers. Things coming from a decaying body is not something I want on me or in me or anything like that. I mean, I’m a believer in miracles; I really am. But oily decomposing human bodies — you would have to prove to me that’s a miracle and that it’s divinely medicinal. Anyways, that’s one of the more outrageous parts of the whole legends and myths behind Nicholas of Myra.
But anyways, the story goes that at Nicaea supposedly this whole thing had to do with Alexander and Arius — two priests from Alexandria, Egypt — and they couldn’t decide on a doctrine between themselves and this whole conflict eventually spilled over into the rest of Christianity. That’s why the whole council of Nicaea was convened. On the side of Alexander was supposedly Nicholas of Myra. We don’t know because Nicholas probably wasn’t even there.
Anyways, the story goes that Nicholas was there on the side of Alexander in the council of Nicaea and that he got so upset with Arius because apparently he too could not come to terms or come to some kind of agreement with Arius and so he eventually ended up punching or slapping Arius during that first quote unquote ‘ecumenical council’ of Nicaea. The story there of St. Nicholas slapping Arius is pure fiction that I have not found anyone who lends any credence whatsoever to that story. This whole ‘saint’ thing is a Catholic invention anyways. And even the Catholic sources I looked at did not give any sort of credibility to this story. So it’s most likely it did not happen.
Once again, if you have any credible sources that point to this actually being something that did happen, please send it to me. I would love to see it and love to look it over, things like that. But I have yet to find anything credible to back up this story about Nicholas slapping or punching Arius at the Council of Nicaea. It’s just pure fiction.
All these legends and myths — it’s almost understandable that at a time when people want to be entertained, they want to be uplifted, they want to think highly of their heroes, whether it’s military combatants or heroes of the faith, etc. This is a time before Hollywood, a time before TV, even a time really before novels and books. So these stories that got passed around were by word of mouth and you can understand how they might have gotten embellished from one person to another and eventually with elements in the story that never actually occurred. So anyways, that’s the trouble with Nicholas and some of these legends and myths are fairly entertaining and even humorous at times, but all in all, they’re fairly ridiculous.
And what we do know about the actual historical person Nicholas of Myra is very, very few things. We know that he actually existed. He was an actual person and he lived in the early 4th century and he was bishop of Myra. That’s about it. All these other miracles they performed — nothing to back it up. No slapping people around in great councils, nothing to back that up. No putting the puzzle pieces of chopped-up little boys back together. There’s no credible evidence for that. In fact, there’s very, very little evidence that we have that we know for sure is true about the historical person Nicholas of Myra. And that’s just the God-honest truth.
Wrap-Up
We hope that you enjoyed this. There wasn’t much to it because there’s not much historically verifiable information about Nicholas of Myra. So that’s why it was shorter than most. But we do hope that you got something out of it and that you rather enjoyed it. And once again, if you have anything to add, any other information, any other historical evidence, stuff like that, please by all means send it over to us. We would love to see that and add it to the notes for everyone’s benefit.
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