Transforming Church

One fact is certain. Santa Claus did not start out with a red suit, a white beard and a paunch. He began his long, illustrious career on the world stage as Nicholas, a Christian bishop who died, peacefully, on Dec. 6, circa A.D. 352, in Myra (modern-day Demre), in southwestern Turkey. Icons depict him in bishop's robes clutching a Bible with one hand and administering a blessing with the other. He has sad eyes, a receding hairline, and a drooping mustache. He can in no way be described as a right jolly old elf.

Sainthood came, not through martyrdom, but through assorted miracles and good deeds. Three good deeds, above all. Hearing of an impoverished local nobleman who was preparing to sell his daughters into prostitution, Nicholas anonymously slipped bags of gold through the man's windows in the dead of night. Each bag contained enough gold for a dowry.

Mysteriously, the cult of Nicholas spread. He became, for reasons unknown, the patron saint of sailors, whose travels broadcast his name. There are islands, ports and inlets named in his honor from Florida to Nigeria. He was also, on the path to fame, blessed with extraordinary luck. In 1087, the Italians snatched his relics and moved them to Bari, a staging point for the Crusades. Russia and Greece took him as their national saint. "He lived his life among the people," Metropolitan Chrysostom, the bishop of Myra, tells the author. "He was not remote or detached. He helped them in their distress, whether they were poor or endangered, persecuted or hungry."

Over the centuries, Nicholas's protective role expanded to cover a multitude of trades. Grain merchants, embalmers, shipwrights, brewers and lawyers all invoked his name. Meanwhile, bits and pieces of his bones made their way across Europe. A finger here and a tooth there helped solidify local support for a saint already approaching superstar status.

Mr. Seal makes an amusing guide to the modern transformation of the venerable old St. Nicholas into Santa Claus, "stooge of the retailers," the patron saint of consumer products like Mrs. Santa's Sexy Underwear Kits ("because Santa needs love too").