Was the Real St. Nick Better than Santa Claus?
Author Adam C. English says St. Nicholas was social activist, businessman, lawyer—and man of God.
[ posted 12/7/2012 10:11AM ]
When Adam C. English visited Bari, Italy, he found an archive library full of primary sources on St. Nicholas—the real man behind the jolly, red-suited legend. St. Nicholas lived around the fourth century, during a "critical moment in church ...
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Jonah James
St. Nicholaus persecuted rival Christians at the beginning of the numerous Byzantine Civil Wars fought over the various heresies -- Arians, Semi-Arians,Homoousians, Homoiousians, Heteroousians, Trinitarians, and others -- about the nature of Jesus. St. Nick, a Trinitarian, physically assaulted Arius himself for his "heresy". This conflict set the stage for increasingly bloody battles between rival sects: "The factions immediately flew to arms, the consecrated ground was used as their field of battle; and one of the ecclesiastical historians has observed, as a real fact, not as a figure of rhetoric, that the well before the church overflowed with a stream of blood, which filled the porticos and the adjacent courts." The Trinitarians won the wars, at least in the west, but other 'heresies' could just as well prevailed, and we would call the Trinity a heresy and Arius a Saint. St. Nick must be remembered for his role in the long Christian practice of bloody sectarian conflict.
Heather Voges
I'm will look forward to reading this book! I love hearing the truth about our Christian fathers! Voice of the Martyrs has a wonderful kid's book telling the real story of St. Nicholas as well other books about St. Valentine and St. Patrick.