St. Nicholas

His Legend and His Rôle in the Christmas Celebration and Other Popular Customs

By

George H. McKnight

Illustrated

G. P. Putnam’s Sons

New York and London

The Knickerbocker Press

1917

Copyright 1917

by

George H. McKnight

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

Alinari

G. da Fabriano. St. Nicholas with Conventional Emblems along with Mary Magdalene,

PREFACE

A FEW years ago, while trying to trace the history of certain Christmas customs, I was unavoidably brought into contact with St. Nicholas. A closer acquaintance with that amiable personality was the result, and acquaintance gradually deepened into veneration and affection. In the same year in which began my closer acquaintance with St. Nicholas, I was so fortunate as to be brought face to face with some of the quaint pictures in which Italian painters, with so much charm, have represented the various episodes in the life of the saint. I was led to believe that others would enjoy the pictures, not all of them readily accessible, and that a wider knowledge of St. Nicholas would greatly enlarge the circle of his friends. The present book was the result.

My aim has been, not to offer an exhaustive study of all the difficult questions that are connected with the name of St. Nicholas, but to bring together, from somewhat scattered sources, the elements in his life story. The kindly acts recorded of him have lived in popular memory and have flowered into some of the most generally cherished of popular customs. In St. Nicholas the reader will come in contact with a personality of unique amiability, whose influence has permeated popular customs for many centuries and has contributed much of sweetness to human life.

My original contribution to the subject has been slight. In the notes I have attempted to indicate my indebtedness to other writers, although the amount of this debt I have not been able adequately to show. To the artists who have represented with feeling and with charm the scenes in the life of St. Nicholas, this book is most indebted, and for them I wish to bespeak a major part of the reader’s attention.

G. H. McK.

Columbus, O.,

July 16, 1917.

CONTENTS

Preface

chapter

I.—St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Kris Kringle

II.—Biography and Legend

III.—The Boy St. Nicholas and St. Nicholas the Patron Saint of Schoolboys

IV.—St. Nicholas and the Dowerless Maidens

V.—The Boy Bishop, or Nicholas Bishop

VI.—Varied Beneficent Activity

VII.—St. Nicholas Plays

VIII.—St. Nicholas as Patron Saint

IX.—Pagan Heritage of St. Nicholas

X.—St. Nicholas, Defender of the Faith

XI.—Conclusion

ILLUSTRATIONS

St. Nicholas and Other Saints

Gentile da Fabriano. (Florence.)

St. Nicholas in East Frisia

Reproduced from Reinsberg-Dūringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr.

Christkindchen (Kris Kringle) and Hans Trapp in Alsace

Reproduced from Reinsberg-Dūringsfeld.

St. Nicholas Scenes in the Stained Glass of Bourges Cathedral

From P. Lacroix, Science and Art in the Middle Ages.

Three Scenes from the Early Life of St. Nicholas

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