Episode 17 of You Sleigh Me: A Christmas Mystery.
Saint Nicholas sighed. “Despite the fact that I became a Saint, I have had to suffer numerous indignities. The first – and perhaps the worst – was when my bones, or ‘relics’, as the thieves would have it, were stolen from their resting place in Myra and transported to Bari in Italy. This was supposed to protect them from the ravages of Islam. But I know that the thieves were well paid – a church with important relics is a powerful one. They lie there still.”
I felt we were drifting away from the point. “All very interesting – but that doesn’t explain what you’re doing right here, right now.”
He looked at me irritably. “I am getting to that. After the Reformation, the Protestant west suppressed the invocation of saints, and my name disappeared from view – except in Holland, where my legend persisted as Sinterklaas. In the 17th century, Dutch colonists took the tradition with them to New Amsterdam – the city now known as New York. Sinterklaas was adopted by the English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus. Over the years, it became combined with a Nordic myth about a kindly old magician who punishes naughty children, and rewards good ones with gifts. And now, in the 21st century, hardly anyone knows who I am.”
He looked down at his gnarled hands, clasped in his lap. “Sometimes, even I don’t know who I am. Which brings me, since you ask, to why I’m here.”
To be continued...
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