The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas

by William J. Bennett

In Patara, there lived a family that had fallen on hard times. They had once been wealthy, but misfortunes had overtaken them, and now they were so poor they had barely enough to live on. The father had tried to find work, but when people saw his soft hands, which had never known any kind of hard labor, they took him to be lazy, and turned him away. The man had three daughters of marriageable age, but their chances of finding husbands were grim since the father could offer no dowries. (In those days, a young woman needed a dowry to attract an offer of marriage.) As their financial situation grew desperate, the father realized that the only way to ensure the survival of his children was to sell them into servitude. At least that way they would have enough to eat. When news of the family’s plight reached Nicholas, he at once set about thinking of a way to help them. He remembered Jesus’ teaching that “when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret” (Matthew 6:3–4 NASB). He soon came up with a plan. That night, he put several gold coins into a small bag and started out for the home of the father and his three daughters. The hour was late and the streets deserted when he arrived. Inside the house, the family was sleeping. Nicholas crept up to a window, reached through, and dropped the bag of gold. (Some say that it landed in a shoe, others in a stocking that had been left hanging to dry.) Then he h...