7 Things You May Not Know About the Saint Who Inspired the Legend of Santa Claus

St. Nicholas, the beloved clergyman who inspired the legend of Santa Claus, unlike popular beliefs did not live in the North Pole. Mostly likely, he was not a portly man wearing a red and white suit with reindeers and elves attending to him. Here are 7 things you may not know about St. Nicholas.

1. St. Nicholas lived near a beach in the ancient city of Patara around what is now known as the small town of Gelemiş, Antalya Province in Turkey, where sheep are known to graze. 

2. St. Nicholas was the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe. 

3. In one of the earliest attested and most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls from being forced into prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house each night for three nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them.  

4. In his youth, he is said to have made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Palestine. Shortly after his return, he became Bishop of Myra. He was later cast into prison during the persecution of Diocletian, but was released after the accession of Constantine. 

5. An early list makes him an attendee at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, but he is never mentioned in any writings by people who were at the council. 

6. Fewer than 200 years after Nicholas's death, the St. Nicholas Church was built in Myra under the orders of Theodosius II over the site of the church where he had served as bishop, and his remains were moved to a sarcophagus in that church. 

7. More than a thousand years after that, St. Nicholas remains a celebrated figure. In the Antalya Museum, an exhibit featuring the saint shares a version of the story of him saving his friend's daughter from prostitution, along with artwork of Jesus and his disciples and other Christian artifacts. 

 

 

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