Nicholas: The Epic Journey from Saint to Santa Claus Hardcover – November 1, 2005

Nicholas: The Epic Journey from Saint to Santa Claus. Author: Jeremy Seal. 368 pages. 2005I picked up this book in the discount section of a discount store. I thought it might be interesting reading and a diversion from my usual reading stack. As I began reading the book, it occurred to me that it was actually quite similar to "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" by Rebecca West. The author used a deft combination of geography, history, faith, culture, and personal experience. The book actually proved far more interesting than I thought it would be. It is one of those books that can really foment questions and reflections creating a challenge rather than merely dry comfortable re-telling of the same story.Speaking of re-telling the same old story, this book is not hagiography in the traditional sense; though it certainly discusses the issue of hagiography. The subject, Nicholas is one of the most mythologized of all saints in Christendom. Any serious study of the saint will embroil the reader in a test of reality vs. myth. The larger question though is does the historical truth really matter when dealing with issues of faith? For example the issue of Nicholas slapping Arius during the First Ecumenical Council ... myth ... but does it really matter? This issue of myth and its creation and impact is addressed in this book though the topic could and should be a whole tome in and of its self.The book traces the journey of St. Nicholas from his diocese in Myrna ever westward and northward as if he was the main character in the action. It may be unsettling for some readers as it gives the saint a lust for re-known out of the character normally assigned to the saint. However it is a very good device for moving and explaining the journey. To discount the device as frivolous or mere mirth is to deny the actions of and the intercessions of saints when they pass into the heavenly kingdom.The journey surprised me. The saint changed form with each incremental move west. The rate of change proved uneven though adapted to each culture and its experience and norms. In some ways it conforms to the missionary methodologies of the early Orthodox Christian Church. What remained most constant is the notion of gift giving. For most of the journey St. Nicholas gave gifts in emulation of the famous story of the three daughters not on the days he gave those gifts but on his canonical feast day, the sixth of December. The date changed to January the first in the new world and then eventually to Christmas itself but not until almost the middle of the 19th century.The appearance and accoutrements of Saint Nicholas changed with each cultural exposure as well. He lost much of his religious appearance during the English and Dutch iconoclasm of the 16th and 17th centuries. Though even in those societies he was still referred to as a Saint. The English eventually morphed him into Father Christmas though that could have religious implications. In some places such as The Netherlands he acquired an assistant "Black Piet" a Moor who helped him. It was not until around 1900 that the image of a white bewhiskered, ruddy faced man in red who drove a reindeer pulled sleigh solidified.This book provides fodder for serious conversations and as such is a good starting point to look at a variety of issues about faith, memory, values, and society.

The author apparently set out to write a "commentary" account -- with his deeply held prejudices of WHO St. Nicholas was!!!Had he done a little research outside of his narrow minded viewpoints, he would have found the TRUTH ofSt. Nicholas! This was an account of nothing that resembled the true story! The writer MOCKED the faith of Christians and especially Catholics!The TRUE story is a BEAUTIFUL story that is the basis for Santa Clause!How DARE this "travel - writer- jack of all trades - too lazy to find the truth - "too cool - cynical biased entity" write FALSEHOODS!!! -Please read other accounts : The Man Who was Really Santa Claus/ by D. Lord; The True Story of St. Nicholas of Myra, Bari, Manhattan /by C. Jones

My husband and I listened to an intriguing abridgement of this book on BBC Radio 4X last Christmas, intriguing enough for me to hunt down a copy. Seal investigates the reality and the myth of St. Nicholas, from his shadowed origins to the miraculous "blood" which comes fro his tomb and the theft of his body and its transport to Bari in Italy in medieval times. Seal travels to each of the places in the St. Nicholas legend, leading to some picturesque visits to Turkey and small towns around the Mediterranean, and then to Amsterdam and Belgium. It's an interesting, if occasionally dry, narrative except for Seal's insistence on writing Nicholas' story as if the deceased saint was somehow directing his fame from beyond the grave. Seal sets this against the search of his own children for "the real Santa Claus," for which the family finally takes a trip to Finland. Unusual and offbeat, but worth looking up if you have an interest in the "ancestry" of Santa.