Ho! Ho! Ho! Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

 

Greetings,

Throughout Dad's adult life, he subscribed to several Christian publications - the superb Jesuit magazine, "America" - https://www.americamagazine.org/ - "Commonweal," "U.S. Catholic," and "St. Anthony's Messenger," a Franciscan publishing house that publishes the works of Richard Rohr OFM - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rohr

Earlier today, Franciscan Father Dan reminded me that December 6th is the Feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra (located in present-day Turkey) - an important Christmas-time celebration in many parts of the world.

In addition to Father Dan's appended message, I will include Wikipedia's entry on Saint Nick to shed light on this good man and the legend for which he is best known - throwing gold coins through the open window (chimney?) of a poor, proud man whose three daughters, for lack of resource, were destined to a life of prostitution.

St. Nicholas, Wonderworker (Wikipedia) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

Saint Nick's legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus through Sinterklaas.

"In one of the earliest attested and most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls from being forced into prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house for three consecutive nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them."  

Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe.  

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Happy St. Nicholas Day to you all!

Pax et amor

PS A persistent mystery is why St. Nicholas did not see fit to tell these three sisters to "work themselves up by their bootstraps" instead of receiving a handout. This failure "to do the right, ruggedly individualistic thing" is cause for ongoing puzzlement among "Christian" "conservatives" and the prosperity gospel to which many subscribe. 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Father Dan <goodnews@franciscanmedia.org>
Date: Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 10:11 AM
Subject: Happy St. Nicholas Day!
To: <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>

December 6th is the feast of St. Nicholas! How will you spend your St. Nicholas Day?

Dear Alan Archibald, Happy St. Nicholas Day! Every year on St. Nicholas Day my brother and I would wake up to a small pile of presents at the foot of our beds. It was always a wonderful reminder that Christmas was coming and was usually followed with a day of making cookies or watching Christmas movies. To read more about this tradition, and St. Nicholas, check out our free online resource Saint of the Day. It is just one of the many free resources available from Franciscan Media to help people grow in their faith. Those resources would not be available if it wasn't for your continued support.  Your donations provide comfort to people like Patricia, who says: "During this very difficult time,  I am so grateful to have Franciscan Media to get me through each day. Thank you for all you do. Your stories and books are priceless." So, I invite you to keep the gift-giving tradition of Saint Nicholas alive today. Help promote our Franciscan mission of spreading the Gospel in the spirit of St. Francis.  Peace and every blessing,   Margie Powell Annual Giving Manager                                                                                             Hello, Alan Archibald. You have received this email because you are subscribed to Spiritual Updates from Franciscan Media. Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you would like to receive.   This email was sent to alanarchibaldo@gmail.com. Franciscan Media | 28 W. Liberty Street | Cincinnati, OH 45202. USA. Copyright © 2016  all rights reserved.