The familiar saint of the Christmas season has more than a few mysteries associated with him. Among them is why the Armenian Church calendar honors St. Nicholas not once, but twice in the Advent season. Bishop Daniel investigates the history behind this double celebration.
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The life of the historical St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, straddled the 3rd and 4th centuries. His spirit of Christian charity and his reputation as a wonder-worker made him renowned well beyond the coastal Greek city in Asia Minor he called home. He became revered and beloved throughout Christendom, eventually serving as the real-life core around which the legend of Santa Claus was elaborated.
The Armenian Church is no exception in having an exalted opinion of Nicholas. Its liturgical calendar dedicates an early Saturday in Advent to him and two fellow wonderworking saints, Gregory and Myron.
But two weeks later, the calendar devotes an additional saint day to a Nicholas identified as “the Wonderworking Patriach of Smyrna.”
Are these two different figures? Or is there something more to the story of the Armenian Saints Nicholas?
In a clever piece of historical scholarship, Bishop Daniel Findikyan unravels the questions surrounding the twin celebrations. The short article was written several years ago as part of a collection of essays titled, A Living Tradition: Essays in Honor of Maxwell E. Johnson. Click the link below to download the article as a PDF file, and learn Bishop Daniel’s conclusions.
Read “Saints Nicholas in Armenia”