Was St. Nicholas a bishop in the Latin-rite church or the Eastern rite? I know that he is venerated as a saint by both. But in his own lifetime, what was he?
St. Nicholas was Bishop of Myra before the division of the Church into East and West. (Besides his gift giving, he’s famous for having slapped Arius at the original Council of Nicaea.)
I believe he even predates the splitting off of the Assyrian Church (the Nestorians) and the Oriental Orthodox (Copts etc.) by a few decades, but I’m not positive on this.
But in point of fact, the present Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches were still united for 700 years after Nicholas went to his reward, and he’s acknowledged as a saint in both (and in any Reformation Church that still acknowledges saints, as well).
Thanks for the answer. I’m pondering the likelihood that St. Nicholas had a wife. I know that by the 4th century, bishops having wives was frowned upon by Rome, although there were several centuries of lax enforcement after that.
Even if St Nicholas had been Orthodox, he wouldn’t have had a wife. If you’re already married, you may be ordained as a normal priest, but not as a bishop.
if wifey had passed he would be a bishop candidate. the bishop for my area when i was a kid was a widower, he had grown children and grandchildren when he was elevated.
so still possible that he may have been married at some point.
Nestorius was born about 40 years after Nicholas died. The Copts, et al, developed as a response to Nestorius. There’s no evidence he was ever married, although, to be fair, we don’t know much about his life.
Today, but was this the case in the 4th century?
ahem
St Nicolas was a swiss hermit. Nicolas de Flüe — Wikipédia
He is now the patron saint of Switzerland.
P.S. I managed to find something in English about him:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/NICHFLU.HTM
And he’s accompanied by six to eight black men.
Re him slapping Arius. I’m still working on a joke about JW’s forbidding Christmas because Santa socked their patron saint.
Surely, they weren’t named Dasher, Dancer, Donner, etc. ! That would just put too tidy a bow on it.
I’m Episcopalian, in the diocese of Kansas here in the US. In our cathdral church there is a door on the west side of the nave called the St. Nicholas door. The stained glass window in the door portrays Nicholas robed as a bishop, surrounded by symbols from his life. There is a tiny figure, about five inches high, in the lower left corner, gesturing up at the larger figure of Nicholas. It’s Santa Claus, with a gift bag on his back. How cool is that? I’ll bet not many churches have Santa in the window!
And on a side note, the Resurrection window on the east side of the church has, in it’s bottom section, a series of small figures of people who lived before Christ. One is a caveman figure, sitting on a rock and gnawing a bone.