THE FEAST OF ST NICHOLAS; 6th DECEMBER

 THE FEAST OF ST NICHOLAS; 6th DECEMBER

Ancient Fresco of Nicholas punching Arius at the Soumela Monastery, at Karadag, Turkey; Via Livius.org.

THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT:

The second week of Advent sees the insertion of a second purple candle into the Advent wreath. The wreath is again blessed by a member of the family before the evening meal, as follows:

“Oh Lord, stir up our hearts that we may prepare for Thy only begotten Son, that through His coming we may be made worthy to serve Thee with pure minds. Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.”

A child lights both the candles after the blessing, followed by grace. The candles are extinguished by the same child following thanks after the meal. The candles are lit at each evening meal by the same child throughout the week.

THE FEAST OF ST NICHOLAS

One of the two significant feast days of this week, and of particular importance in modern times, is the feast of St Nicholas, on 6th December. Prior to his veneration by Coca Cola, St Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, in modern Turkey, and was known for his kindness and generosity to poor children. Legend has it that he threw gold through the windows of houses of impoverished girls so their fathers could afford dowries and they could be married, instead of falling into prostitution. It is said that in one household he tossed three bags of gold, one for each endangered daughter. This story of the three bags of gold is the origin of the pawnbroker symbol of three golden balls outside pawnshops. He was imprisoned by the ruthless Emperor Diocletian.

He is, despite his reputation for saintliness and forbearance, widely known, not for his amazing miracles, (which were many), nor for his theological brilliance (which was profound), and not even for his renowned generosity, but for punching the heretic Arius at the Council of Nicea. The records of the Council provide that he was imprisoned for three days and three nights as punishment by his fellow bishops for punching Arius, who had developed a heresy that had become widespread, causing confusion amongst the Catholic faithful. The Orthodox Church celebrates this momentous event by mosaics depicting St Nicholas punching Arius. The fresco above featuring St Nicholas rendering a significant blow to Arius, is at the Soumela Monastery, a Greek Orthodox Monastery dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, situated in the Pontic Mountains in what is today, modern Turkey.

The tradition of giving presents arose in Europe, in some countries, on the feast of St Nicholas, reflecting his kindness and generosity, in others, on the feast of the Epiphany, as a reflection of the gifts of the three wise men. There are moves afoot in European countries to counter-act the commercial influence of Santa Claus by promoting the older cultural references to family and religious symbols, as a rejection of the materialism that is seen as usurping Christmas. These instincts are, in fact, well founded: Santa Claus was indeed, a fictional invention, first depicted by anti-Catholic cartoonist Thomas Nast, and loosely modelled on St Nicholas, all of which was grounded in an attempt to neutralise the Catholic content of Christmas and to secularise and commercialise the celebration by a Puritan mindset prevailing in the US in the early nineteenth century.

The Puritans had banned Christmas in England by an Act of Parliament in 1644. All activities associated with Christmas, including attending Mass, were forbidden. The Puritans saw the festival (Christ’s Mass) as a remnant of the detested festivities of Catholicism and thereby encouragement for the dissident community of Catholics. They preferred that it be called “Christ tide” and banned celebrations for Easter, all feast days and Twelfth Night. Oliver Cromwell ordered all inns and playhouses to be closed, most sports banned and those caught swearing to be fined. Women working on the Sabbath were put in stocks – they had to wear a long black dress, a white apron, white headdress and no make-up.

The dislike of Christmas celebrations prevailed with the Puritan Americans, who endeavoured to neutralise the religious content. The festival became appropriated by the insertion of the secular image of Santa Claus, as a derivation of St Nicholas. The design of Santa Claus was famously adopted by Coca Cola and is now a very useful vehicle for the commercial season.

For us Catholics, it is the time to prepare the manger for the coming of the infant Jesus. St Nicholas was renowned for his asceticism; the Gospel of today uses the word, ‘mollibus’, the root source of our notion of ‘mollycoddling’. Jesus asked the crowd what they had come to see when they sought John the Baptist - a man in soft garments? We need asceticism and discipline to make us strong. We can use the Advent period to prepare the manger, our hearts, to receive Christ with the love He deserves by focussing on His coming arrival in observing the fasting days, the Ember days and prayer.

The feast of St Nicholas is generally celebrated in Holland, Germany and Switzerland with nuts, sweets and hot chocolate. Biscuits shaped in the children’s initials are also served. St Nicholas’ Day is also a good excuse to make a cake in the shape of a bishop’s mitre and to start the Christmas cookie baking; Speculaas and Springerle are the traditional cookies. In the cold of the European winter, hot spiced wine is served.

Speculaas (Dutch biscuits traditionally made for St Nicholas’ Day)

250g sifted plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

150g brown sugar

1 cup lard

4 tspns ground cinnamon

¼ tspn each ground nutmeg, ginger and cardamom

½ tspn ground cloves

150g cold butter, unsalted

1/2 cup sour cream

Rice flour for dusting

6cm moulds – preferably in the shape of St Nicholas.

DIRECTIONS

Cream the butter, lard and sugar. Add sour cream alternately with sifted dry ingredienst. Stir in nuts. Knead teh doiugh into rolls. Wrap the rolls in wax paper and chill in teh refirgerator overnight. Roll the dough very thin and cut into shapes. Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees) for 10 to 15 minutes.

"Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family", Maria Augusta Von Trapp, Sophia Institute Press, 1955, at p. 21.

In Poland, if there is a red sunset on St Nicholas’ Day, it is because the angels are baking the Saint’s Honey Cakes, recipe below, courtesy of Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger, Feast Day Cookbook:

Ciastka Miodowe (Honey Cakes)

½ cup honey

½ cup sugar

1 egg

2 egg yolks

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cloves

¼ teaspoon ginger

Blanched almond.

Warm the honey slightly and combine with the sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Sift the flour with the soda and spices and stir in the honey batter thoroughly. Let the dough rest overnight. Roll dough to ¼ inch thickness; cut out with a cookie cutter. Brush with the slightly beaten white of an egg, press half a blanched almond into each cookie and bake at 200 degrees C for about fifteen minutes.

In his book, “Twelve Months of Monastery Soups”, Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette sets out a recipe for “Saint Nicholas Soup”, as follows:

Saint Nicholas Soup

Ingredients

2 ounces butter

2 leeks or onions

4 medium carrots

3 turnips

4 potatoes

Half a medium sized head of white cabbage

8 litres water

1 teaspoon salt

1/3rd cup minced chervil

croutons

Method:

1 Wash and peel the vegetables

2 Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Add the vegetables and salt and stir. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let it rest for about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the water ad bring the soup to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot and allow the soup to cook slowly for 30 to 40 minutes. Stir from time to time.

3 When the soup is done, blend all of it in a blender until it becomes creamy and even. Serve hot, adding croutons to each bowl and sprinkling some chervil on top.