Before the red suit and the sleigh.
Before the reindeer and the workshop at the North Pole.
Before the jolly face on a Coca-Cola ad.
There was a man… A real man.
He was born into a world where following Jesus could get you killed, and poverty drove people to hideous and unthinkable decisions.
He was an orphan who inherited wealth and chose to weaponize it for mercy. He became something the Roman Empire never saw coming.
His name was Nicholas.
And his story doesn't start with cookies and milk.
It starts with plague, grief, and holy fire.
Picture the world into which Nicholas was born.
Streets lined with Roman banners snapping in the Mediterranean wind. Cities humming with trade. And beneath it all, a simmering, dangerous hostility toward the followers of a crucified Jewish carpenter named Jesus.
This is the late 200s AD. Patara, Asia Minor.
Nicholas enters the world into a wealthy Christian family. Well-fed. Well-taught. Protected in ways most ancient children never were.
But then disaster struck.
A plague sweeps through Lycia. And Nicholas, still young, loses both parents in a matter of days.
Just like that, he becomes an orphan.
Grief seems only to sharpen young Nicholas. He becomes more serious. More relentless. More attuned to God.
He receives a large inheritance and chooses to weaponize it against the Roman government and for the sake of Christ.
At this point in the Roman Empire, Christians were fiercely hunted. Nicholas plans on using his wealth to uplift those Rome had forcibly kept down.
When Nicholas was still very young, he heard a tragic story.
A local man in Myra had fallen into brutal poverty. Debt had eaten away everything he owned—his land, his dignity, his options.
Finally, this man faced a monstrous decision that no parent should ever have to make: Sell his three daughters into slavery… or worse, into prostitution…
You don’t hear that story ever told with claymation.
Nicholas hears of this horror.
He knows exposure could lead the Romans straight to him. He knows anonymity is safer. He knows one misstep could doom not just himself but the very daughters he's trying to save.
So he moves in darkness.
Hood drawn low. Feet silent against the stone streets. A bag of gold clutched in his hands. Then… thud… A bag crashes through the man’s window. Enough gold to ransom the eldest daughter. Enough to pull her back from the edge of the abyss.
Then another night. Another bag. Another daughter saved.
Then a third.
Each time Nicholas risks discovery. Each time he refuses recognition. Each time he chooses secrecy, because righteous action doesn't need applause.
This moment becomes the heartbeat of Nicholas’ entire life.
Nicholas is not Santa Claus. He is not a folklore figure with twinkling eyes and a cup of milk.
He is a clandestine defender of the vulnerable. A quiet saboteur of exploitation. A man who spends his inherited wealth to wage covert war against the darkness strangling his world.
This is the Nicholas the early church remembers.
And he gets even more epic. Just wait and see.
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The legend of Saint Nicholas isn’t as pretty and nostalgic without the reindeer, snow, and lights atop a tree. But isn’t that better?
It’s comforting to know that behind the myth was a real man living in the real world, making real decisions.
We don’t live in a Hallmark movie. We live in a world where exploitation exists. People are hungry. Sin ravages our hearts and relationships.
Despite these circumstances, Nicholas chose the path of radical faithfulness. He chose the path of Christ.
So can we, friends… So can we.
Join us tomorrow for PART TWO of this epic journey through Nicholas’ life.
