The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas

by William J. Bennett

When he grew quite old, and his beard was full white, he found that often his greatest joy came in the presence of children. He sat with them in church or in the agora, teaching them about God’s love and listening to their innocent hearts. Then he knew the truth of Jesus’ words: “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14 NASB). Sometime around the year 340,

Nicholas of Myra fell ill, and his end drew near. According to The Golden Legend, a late medieval account, “when it pleased our Lord to have him depart out this world, he prayed our Lord that he would send him his angels; and inclining his head he saw the angels come to him, whereby he knew well that he should depart … and so saying, ‘Lord, into thine hands I commend my spirit,’ he rendered up his soul and died.” Tradition says that Nicholas died on December 6, the date now observed as his feast day.

Does that mean that we moderns must regard old legends of miracles as necessarily false? No, on two counts.

First, many old legends contain our best expressions of the human condition. They reveal the soul. Metaphors they may be, but they are metaphors that illuminate eternal truths. Second, even in this high-tech world, it takes a pretty small mind to declare that

there is absolutely no such thing as an honest-to-goodness miracle. Many of us run into a miracle or two during our lives—something that defies all rational explanation. Who is to say that God does not move in mysterious ways? As Hamlet told his friend, “There are more thi...