Today is the Feast of St Nicholas of Myra, best known today for being the origin of Santa Claus. He is the Patron of children, coopers, sailors, fishermen, merchants, broadcasters, the falsely accused, repentant thieves, brewers (YAY!), pharmacists, archers, pawnbrokers, Aberdeen, Galway, Russia, Greece, the Hellenic Navy, Liverpool, Bari (where his relics repose), Siggiewi, Moscow, Amsterdam, Lorraine, and the historical Duchy of Lorraine.
In ages past, in many countries, children received gifts on his Feast Day. With his conflation with the mythical figure of Santa Clause, this custom is dying, but when my children were small, they always received a small gift to celebrate it, and I would explain the connection to the old fellow in the red suit.
However, on the 'Catholic internet', he is probably best remembered for his, almost certainly apocryphal, chastisement of the heresiarch Arius at the First Œcumenical Council of Nicaea, by slapping or punching him for denying the Divinity of Christ, God made Man.
In Bavaria and southern Germany he is accompanied on his gift giving by Krampus, and here is a video on him.
Happy St Nicholas Day!
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