World / History

The 'action hero' story behind St Nicholas, the 'real' Santa Claus

13:18 pm on 22 December 2024

It is believed the figure of Santa Claus is partially derived from St Nicholas, who was a Christian bishop in the ancient coastal city of Myra. (file image) Photo: 123rf.com/profile_Prometeus/

Many legends, miracles and myths have been told about Saint Nicholas, the Byzantine bishop who Santa Claus is based on. But could you ever imagine him as a Marvel-esque figure that swoops in at the last moment to save lives?

That's apparently one of the stories behind the 'real' Santa Claus which has caught the imagination of Brian Thornton, a senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Winchester.

"While most people know the kind of origin story of Santa Claus, not many have heard of this story," Thornton tells Sunday Morning. "This story in particular, it really kind of humanised him for me and made him a far more interesting character than I think he's normally portrayed."

Santa Claus the action hero

'Action hero' fighting for justice

It is believed that St Nicholas was a Christian bishop in the ancient coastal city of Myra from about 1700 years ago.

An artist's depiction of Saint Nicholas of Myra saving three men from death. Photo: Ilya Repin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, CC

It was during the time of the Roman Empire when Christians couldn't practise their faith freely so Saint Nicholas was sent to prison for 10 years where research suggests he may have been tortured and worked as a slave in the mines, Thornton says.

"So it was a terrible experience he had. But you have to remember that this was somebody who was apparently very, very kind, very humble and noble and decent person. He was just arbitrarily picked up, punished, imprisoned, his freedom taken away.

"He could have been freed if he agreed to worship the Roman gods, but he refused. So he was somebody who put up with this terrible experience for maybe 10 years because he stuck by his principles."

Years later, when he returned to his town, word reached him that a businessman - for reasons we don't know - bribed a governor to convict and executive three men, Thornton says.

"[Saint Nicholas] raced to the square. He pushed these people out of the way. The crowds had come to watch this terrible execution. So he pushed the crowds out of the way.

"And just when the executioner's sword was about to fall on the first innocent victim, he threw himself between the victim and the sword and apparently wrestled the sword from the hand of the executioner and set the three men free.

"And then he wasn't just happy with that. He then made his way to the governor's residence and then berated the governor for what had what he had done … and the governor repented and promised that he would never do such a thing again."

Does the story stack up?

For Thornton, this story is more plausible than others told about the St Nicholas, because it doesn't feel like it's told to fit a moral message on Christian values, and it aligned with the bishop's backstory.

University of Winchester investigative journalist and academic Brian Thornton. Photo: Sky Crime via University of Winchester

"When the Romans decided to torture you, it was a pretty unpleasant business. So I think somebody would only react in that sort of instinctive way if they had a little bit of skin in the game themselves, if they had personal experience.

"So that's why I think there's a lot more credence because there are some really wild stories told about Saint Nicholas and you can see the embellishment … because the motivation from a Christian point of view to kind of shoehorn Saint Nicholas into the kind of midwinter feast.

"You can see that they did need him to do certain things and behave in a certain way to make him make that fit, but the rescue of these three innocent men doesn't really help their case."

Hearing about a heroic Santa would have been more appealing as a child than the 'old and jolly' narrative, Thornton says.

"He was actually somebody who knocked heads together and kicked doors in and got stuff done. So he was sort of a fantastic action figure as well.

"Saint Nicholas became the kind of action hero, not really caring for his own personal safety, not caring for his reputation, putting his life literally in harm's way."

What do we know about the man who Santa Claus was based on?

For about 200 years after Saint Nicholas' death, people relayed stories about him via word of mouth because there were no written records about him when he was alive, Thornton says.

Over time, as these were recorded, they became embellished in ways that fit religious values, he says.

"The midwinter festival was a time when you had lots of different religions and lots of different traditions around lots of different figures. So you had Pagan figures like Odin who was apparently used to come and deliver presents and you had lots of figures around Europe that were similar in ways.

"And so what the idea was that you needed to bring them all together into one figure. So he became a sort of a collection of all the kind of best parts of all these other figures.

"He became probably the most famous Saint in Europe. So I think in medieval England there was about 400 churches were named after him."

What about the bags of gold, red suit, and jolly character?

Saint Nicholas wasn't much for scolding children about being naughty or nice either apparently. (file image) Photo: fotoksa/123RF

Some legends say he joined the church at the age of 10 and become a biship in his 20s, Thornton says.

St Nicholas inherited his wealthy parents at a young age, when they died after a plague. So the bags of gold he is said to have been giving to the needy was likely to have been from his own money, Thornton says.

And he wasn't much for scolding children about being naughty or nice either apparently, he says.

"He was, for a very long time, somebody who did like a drink and did like to have a good time and really didn't concern himself too much with giving a presents.

"When people emigrated to America, particularly Dutch people, they brought the legend of St Nicholas with them. And then over the years, it kind of percolated in America.

"It went through the filters of different kind of stories that were told. And then you had magazines, movies, all of this, they slowly but surely sort of started to coalesce around this jolly figure in the sleigh with the reindeers."

One of the final transformations for the Santa Claus we know today was when Coca-Cola brought those strands together and promoted him in their ads as a man in a red suit - to fit their branding, Thornton says.