St. Nicholas

To start off, just so I know we are clear, St. Nicholas (a.k.a Santa) is a real person. He was born during the 3rd century in a small village called Patara which is on the southern coast of Turkey. He was raised by his very wealthy parents. They were devout Christians and passed that on to St. Nicholas. Later his parents died in an epidemic and left him all of their wealth, which was a lot. He believed that you needed to sell what you own and give to the poor.

St. Nicholas was made the bishop of Manna while he was still quite young. He was known and respected all throughout Turkey for being so generous, loving and caring. Unfortunately one man that didn’t respect St. Nicholas was the Roman emperor Diocletian. He captured, imprisoned and exiled St. Nicholas.

One story that shows St. Nicholas’s kindness is the story of the poor man with three daughters. The father wanted them to get married but he had no money for a dowry, which is a gift to the husband so he will marry your daughter. Because he had no money he was going to be forced to sell his daughters into slavery. One day he was in his home and in his shoe he found a bag of gold. He then found two more in his socks. This allowed him to get husbands for his daughters. (This is why the stockings are hung at Christmas.) This is just one demonstration of his kindness.

St. Nick was also known for giving gifts to all the little children. That act was the start of the Santa era. He was loved by everyone in his village. Since he was rich he had enough money to provide food during famines and help out townspeople when they were in financial need. The greatest thing about him is that he expected absolutely nothing in return.

These traits make St. Nicholas my hero because he was a wonderful and awesome person and I wish I was more like him.