Santa Claus’ Day is celebrated on 6th December since he is a Being of Light who truly existed.
Around 1500 years ago, in Patara on the Mediterranean coast in Central Asia, a boy was born, whose parents were very rich named him Nikelaos, which means ‘the town’s victory’, ‘Claus’ in English and ‘Nicolás’ in Spanish.
Since childhood, Claus developed a deep love for Master Jesus, helping the poor, healing the sick, forgiving his enemies, doing good to everyone, and letting kids come close to him to bless them.
Claus’ parents passed away when he still was a teenager, and being very young, he became rich. Claus started spending his inheritance to make good to others. A friend of his as rich as him was bankrupt and with three daughters to maintain. The poor man was tempted to sell his daughters to prevent them from starvation. Claus heard that, so used to climb up on the roof of his friend’s house and down through his chimney to hiddenly leave fantastic golden gifts.
Next Patara, in a town called Myra there was an elderly and tired bishop who could not find someone to replace him. One day, the elderly bishop told Jesus by praying that he could not continue and the next man who entered the church will be put in charge as a bishop. At that moment, Claus was walking through and decided to enter. By doing so, he surprisingly became the bishop of Myra.
Claus as the bishop of Myra made people put into practice Jesus’ teachings, loving others as much as oneself, feeding those who were hungry, forgiving the aggressors and blessing the whole town where he was living and other places nearby. Claus was known as a saint. There was a lack of food in Myra and next to the harbour there was a ship full of supplies. Claus asked the captain of the ship to leave the shipment to feed the people and save them from starvation. The captain agreed, leaving the shipments totally empty. As soon as the ship sailed, Claus performed the miracle of refilling the holds of food again.
On 5th December, Claus was preparing himself to receive Christmas in advance when God called him to help him from Heaven for Christmas. Since then, Claus works every December to help Jesus with these celebrations, giving money to the parents whose kids behave well during the year. Therefore, they can buy some toys for Christmas eve on behalf of Claus and baby Jesus.
Claus’ body lifeless never became corrupted but started spreading a fragrant oil, with which sick people healed. In a beautiful sarcophagus of carved marble Claus’ body spent 500 years. Given he was already a saint, he was called ‘Santa Claus.’
Ruben Cedeño
Translation by Noemi Banchi