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1. What do you know about Father Christmas (Santa Claus)?
2. Is Father Christmas famous where you live?
3. Is there any other celebrations similar to Christmas in your country?
Now let's discover something about the real Father Christmas.
St. Nicholas is acknowledged as being the patron saint of Russia, Greece and Norway. He is the patron of night watchmen in Armenia and the acolyte children in Bari.
It is accepted that St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, is probably from Petara, in Asia Minor, also known as Anatolia in Turkey where he would be born in the middle of the 3rd Century and would died on 3rd of December 342.
Under Diocletian empire, Nicholas was imprisoned for refusing to deny his faith in Jesus Christ. After the rise to power of Constantine, Nicholas had to face opposition again, this time inside the Church itself. During a debate with other church leaders, Nicholas stands up and slaps one of his antagonists. This prevents him from being a church leader. Nicholas, however, does not allow himself to be defeated and stands active, providing help to children and others in need.
Several miracles were attributed to him, being from these his popularity all around Europe and his designation as sailormen and tradesmen protector,matchmaker and, mainly friend of children. From St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra (Lycia) in the 4th Century, we have a great number of reports and stories, but it´s difficult to distinguish the authentic from the abundant legends that germinated about this very popular saint, whose image was lately related and changed into Father Christmas (Santa Claus in the USA) icon, an old man crowned with a white beard, bringing in his back a bag full of gifts.
He's considered as welcoming to the poor and mainly with poor children, the first saint of the church to concern about education and moral of both children and their mothers.
Some Orthodox Churches honour him with the last Sunday of the Julian calendar. The coptic and byzantine rites (catholic and orthodox) dedicate him great importance and the celebration of his pastoral life is very remarkable. The Roman Liturgical Calendar, as well as the Byzantine rite churches, catholic and orthodox, that follow the Gregorian calendar celebrates his memory on 6th of December.
The devotion for this saint spread across Europe when his relics, stolen from Myra by 62 soldiers from Bari (Italy), and brought save subtracting them from the Turkish invaders, were placed with great honours in the Cathedral of Bari on 9th of May 1807. The relics were preceded by the fame of the supposed thaumaturge and the colourful legends which rounded his figure.
These religious legends, such as ressurecting people from the grave in Myra, today Demre in Turkey and providing food after a rigorous winter in Spain and also his iconisation as Father Christmas that make St. Nicholas a very known person, but they are also the reason for not having a clear notion about his life.
Article adapted from the original in Portuguese at: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolau_de_Mira and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
St. Nicholas ikon extracted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nikola_from_1294.jpg and is in public domain because its copyright has expired
After reading:
1. Using your own words, how can you compare St. Nicholas and today's Father Christmas?
2. What could be your dream Christmas?
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English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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