The season of Advent is blessed by the commemoration of some of the most beloved saints on the Church calendar, including St. Nicholas and St. Lucy. St. Nicholas and St. Lucy are associated with wonderful stories and customs. St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra, a small city that is part of Turkey today. He was elected bishop by popular acclamation, so evident to all—even to his fellow bishops! —was his saintliness. He was put into prison by the emperor Diocletian but was restored to his See when Constantine became emperor. There are numerous stories about his life, about his miracles, but above all what he was famous for was his generosity. The most famous story told about St. Nicholas is how he helped three young women in their time of dire need. A poor man had three daughters. He could not afford a dowry for each of them, so they were doomed to be unmarried and, as happened in those days, would normally become prostitutes. St. Nicholas heard about this situation and saw to it personally that the father had enough money to provide a dowry for each of his daughters. One version of the story is that St. Nicholas took three bags of gold and hid outside the house and threw the three bags into the house through an open window. You can see depictions of this scene in medieval manuscripts and icons. Another version is that after he had “delivered” two of the bags of gold the father figured out that it was St. Nicholas who was the very generous donor and went to him to thank him. St. Nicholas protested and said that the father should be thanking God and not him. When it was time to deliver the third bag of gold coins, the saint knew he could not throw it in through the open window, lest he be seen. So he climbed on the roof and threw the bag of gold into the chimney to let them find it in the fireplace. It happened that one of the daughters had hung her stockings that night to dry in the fireplace. The bag of gold fell into her stockings. Sound familiar? This is the origin of the stories about Santa Claus, whose name came from the Dutch settlers of New York, who brought with them their traditions of the feast of Sinterklaus, who became, in the secular New World, Santa Claus.
Saint Lucy was a virgin martyr from Syracuse in Sicily in the time of the Diocletian persecutions in the third century. After refusing to marry, she was denounced to the Roman authorities as a Christian by the man who wanted her to be his wife. She was tortured, and according to later accounts, her eyes were torn out of her head, and then she was killed by a dagger plunged into her throat. Her name comes from the Latin word for “light”. For this reason she is associated with light, an association that is heightened by the fact that her feast day is celebrated at the darkest time of the year. The Swedes have a lovely tradition on this feast day that involves the eldest daughter of the house getting up before dawn, and dressed in a white gown and crowned with a wreath of candles goes to the bedroom of each member of the household and wakes them up and gives them special saffron buns baked only for the feast of St. Lucy. In her native Sicily, a special dessert is made called “cuccia” the basis of which is boiled wheat to which is added honey and spices and fruits. Each town makes it in a different way, but everyone in Sicily eats cuccia on December 13. We are rightly reluctant to start putting up Christmas decorations too soon before the 25th of December. In this regard, may I suggest that those of us who put candles in the windows of our homes as a sign that Christmas is coming start lighting them on the feast of St. Lucy, the saint who points to the true Light of the World who is Jesus Christ.
I pray you all will continue to keep a holy Advent.
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla
