The real St. Nicholas

Today in the Church we remember St. Nicholas and he really is a saint!  In fact he was a Bishop – the Bishop of Myra, an area now in Turkey.  The song calls him “Jolly Old St. Nicholas” and if he is a saint he probably was a happy man.  But he was a very holy man, a very generous man, a man who loved his people and cared for them.  There is the legend about him that he was concerned about a poor man in the town who had 3 daughters of marriageable age.  However they had no dowries to enable them to find a husband.  If they did not marry there was fear that they would end up as prostitutes.  The legend relates that Bishop Nicholas, on three separate occasions, threw bags of gold through the window of the poor man’s house.  Thus, the daughters were able to marry. 

Today we can imitate his generosity.  Rather than be concerned about spending lots of money on lots of gifts we can remember the poor and needy and make sure they are not forgotten on our Christmas list.  How far we have come from knowing the truth about the kindly saint!   Here is a link to some other information about him; please pass it along.  http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=53440