The Feast Day of St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas, from whom we derive our modern day image of the fictional character of "Santa Claus", was essentially the Archtype for everything the modern left cries out for as based on Christianity. He was dedicated from an early age by his parents to a life devoted to God. He was ordained a priest by his uncle, St. Nicholas of Patara. He received an inheritance from his parents upon their deaths and donated all of that inheritance to the poor, leaving nothing for himself. He saved three men from undeserved sentences of death. This man lived and acted out everything the modern left says Christians should empower the government to do so that they can feel better about themselves. St. Nicholas is an exemplary model of the faith.

He is also a defender of the faith. Christians are mocked today by our alleged "bigotry" but the Christian faith by its very nature carries on a role of offense. Indeed, Jesus is declared a "rock of offense" (1 Pet. 2:8). At the First Council of Nicaea, the creed of which is recited in Christian churches every Sunday all throughout the world, he disputed with the Archheretic Arius over the Divinity of Jesus. Arius, asserting falsely that Jesus was a creature and the first created being, provoked the ire of St. Nicholas who loved the Truth so much that he ended up slapping the heretic right across the face in his zeal for the Truth. He was subsequently imprisoned for this until the other bishops received a vision of Christ leading them to sympathy for St. Nicholas.

In contrast to "Santa Claus", St. Nicholas doesn't do his good deeds for milk and cookies. He lets the left hand know what the right hand is doing. He isn't fat. He fasts every Wednesday and Friday, leads a monastic life refraining from meat except fish, and observes all the major fasts of the Christian year. He isn't white. He is from Myra so his skin complexion is probably much darker. Maybe even black. He doesn't ride around in a chariot pulled by flying reindeer, such is not the humility of a saint. He is much better than the fictional character because he is real.