Santa Claus – Who he really was

Many people have often wondered whether or not Santa Claus is just a tale or just a mere story, if he true did or still exist? Well, Santa Claus did existed. Santa Claus, Father Christmas as many call him was Saint Nicholas born in the mid-200s to a very wealthy family in Patara in Lycia, a province in Asia Minor. He was brought up to be a good Catholic Christian right from Childhood. The lost his parents when he was a very young man, he inherited his family’s untold wealth and tradition had it that he did a lot of good works of kinds and faith with the wealth he inherited, holding nothing he could give back from anyone who needed it.
There are several stories of him helping a lot of people, the famous of them all is:

A poor man who had three daughters and could not pay for a dowry for any of them to get married. The man then had plans to sell his daughters out for prostitution, Saint Nicholas heard of the girl’s plight and decided to help. He came to the man’s house at night and tossed a bag filled with gold through the window (enough money to pay for a dowry). Saint Nicholas did the same on a second and third night respectively. On the third night the man caught him but Saint Nicholas begged him not say a word to anyone about it. Since from that day any act of kindness of such witnessed were attributed to Saint Nicholas, Popularly called “Father Christmas” as he was in the habit of carrying out his good acts of Charity and kindness during the festive periods of Christmas each year. Many Considered him a holy man and a living Saint.

When Bishop of Myra died, Saint Nicholas was chosen to replace him. Saint Nicholas suffered several persecutions and to point was exiled from Myra and imprisoned by the Emperor Diocletian. He later died in the fourth century between the years 345 and 352 on December 6th, and was buried at his cathedral. His body was later found and taken by Italian merchants in 1087 and entombed in a new church in Bari, Italy.

Saint Nicholas was named a saint purposely because of his Kindness. No man yet have had a recognized hieght of Saint Nicholas’ Kindness. He is the Saint of Children and The Saint of Sailors as well.

There was a miracle recorded on his account for rescuing a group of sailors who were caught in a dreadful storm, had no other hope, then prayed to Saint Nicholas for his intercession. The sailors testified that Saint Nicholas appeared on deck before them and calmed the storm.

Nevertheless, is there a Santa Claus?

Fr. William P. Saunders (a popular Catholic writer) when asked the same question by a little girl, Virginia, after reading the New York Sun in 1897. He  answered her saying:

 “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished…. Nobody sees Santa Claus but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see…. Thank God! He lives, and he lives forever.”