Wednesday, December 5, 2012

St. Nicholas most simply put

The feast of St. Nicholas begins with a vigil service this evening and continues with liturgy in the morning. Happy Feast Day! I read the following in The Winter Pascha by Thomas Hopko:
The extraordinary thing about the image of St. Nicholas in the Church is that he is not known for anything extraordinary. He was not a theologian and never wrote a word, yet he is famous in the memory of believers as a zealot for orthodoxy, allegedly accosting the heretic Arius at the first ecumenical council in Nicaea for denying the divinity of God's son. He was not an ascetic and did no outstanding feats of fasting and vigils, yet he is praised for his possession of the "fruit of the Holy Spirit...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23). He was not a mystic in our present meaning of the term but he lived daily with the Lord and was godly in all his words and deeds. He was not a prophet in the technical sense, yet he proclaimed the Word of God, exposed the sins of the wicked, defended the rights of the oppressed and afflicted, and battled against every form of injustice with supernatural compassion and mercy. In a word, he was a good pastor, father, and bishop to his flock, known especially for his love and care for the poor. Most simply put, he was a divinely good person.

3 comments:

magsmcc said...

And do you know, dear Gretchen, that he is buried in one of my most special holy places in Ireland- Jerpoint Abbey near Kilkenny. Apparently his remains were rescued from some insurrection like thing and brought to Ireland by monks. I haven't mentionned that to the boys when we've been there...

Gumbo Lily said...

I felt it was important to tell our kids who St. Nicholas really was. We celebrated his feast day on Dec. 6th with stories about him and chocolate letters and sometimes tea.

Maggs....cool about his remains being near you.

Jody

Left-Handed Housewife said...

Thanks for this, GJ--a lovely profile!

xofrances