 This past Thursday, Dec. 6, was the feast of Saint Nicholas, when children in parts of Europe woke to find candy in their shoes. Some had left carrots in the shoes the night before for the good saint’s donkey. Carrying a saint with his bag full of sweets is hungry work.
Patron saint of children, seamen, and travelers, Nicholas (280-343) was a bishop known for his gifts to those in need. He’s said to have saved three sisters from being sold into slavery by providing gold for their dowries. In another old tale, illustrated above and retold in Benjamin Britten's 1948 Saint Nicholas Cantata, an innkeeper killed and pickled three boys for meat during a famine. The good saint stopped unwitting customers from eating them and brought the boys back to life. If you want to throw something different into the sweet seasonal mix of lore, carols, and movies, you can always conjure up Saint Nicholas and the pickled boys. Image: Saint Nicholas Resuscitating Three Youths, by Bicci di Lorenzo, Florence, 1433-35. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.
4 Comments
Rebecca, glad you enjoyed it too, and for some of the same reasons! Have you ever read some of the original Grimms' fairy tales? The bad person would get placed in a barrel with nails driven into it and rolled down the street until dead. I wonder if children had scary dreams or were just used to that sort of story, the way farm kids are used to animals dying (sometimes sad but not freaked out).
John Bills
3/22/2025 05:57:21 pm
Just back from a great performance of Saint Nicholas by the Gig Caritas orchestra and choir and wanted to know more about the pickled boys. Thanks for the story. You learn something new every day. Even if it is unlikely to be to be a great asset in my life. Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin.
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