Saint Nicholas: The Real Story (2015) | Full Movie

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this beautiful coastline on the mediterranean sea has some of the clearest blue water and beautiful beaches anywhere in the world it's now a popular tourist destination in modern turkey [Music] in this program historian and expert on this region dr mark wilson leads us on a journey to discover the truth about the man we call santa claus we're on a quest to follow the trail of one of the most important people in history at times that trail is almost non-existent but we're going to do our best to reconstruct the lifetimes and legacy of someone who is a household name all over the world today when i say the name saint nicholas i'm sure it triggers various images in your mind your image largely depends on what you've been taught or where you grew up our endeavor in this journey is to help you discover the real saint nicholas nicholas of amira the american santa claus clearly derives from saint nicholas but the differences between those two are important nicholas we should never forget was a real historical person whereas santa claus is the creation of family tradition and the holiday spirit our journey begins in patara one of my favorite ancient cities in turkey patara was the primary port of the roman province of lysia today its harbor is silted and a beach blocks its entrance but in the first century the apostle paul landed here on his third missionary journey and that's very important to our story which i'll explain later the region of licia was in southwestern asia minor [Music] patara was once the capital of the lysian nation but fell to alexander the great in 333 bc then in 167 bc lucia came under roman rule ports in this region of ancient lucia were major trade routes for the greeks and romans the emperor hadrian built large granaries here to house wheat that was transported all the way from egypt to rome but interestingly the romans granted the city its freedom probably because they recognized its sophisticated manner of democratic government one of the visual reminders of the lisian civilization today are the tombs can you tell us about this interesting people yes it's all around us actually and we we see them all the time not only the rock cup tombs but also freestanding ones and it's very interesting that some of the pigraphy on these tombs has been read and it says if anybody who is not of this family uses these tombs may they be cursed forever so we know that they also believed in life after death definitely and the freestanding tombs are built exactly like a house a house made of logs and still today in the mountains we have small wooden structures like this where they keep the hay which are exactly like these [Music] tools these are the remains of the lighthouse of patara built by the emperor nero until recently it was buried in the sand but as you can see it's now been completely excavated archaeologists believe that its height was 100 feet tall and that it was built in 1864 a few years after the apostle paul landed here today it serves as an iconic reminder of the importance of this forgotten city [Music] a few years after his visit to potara the apostle paul traveled through lyssia again this time as a prisoner here at andreake the port of mira his roman guard transferred him to an alexandrian grain ship bound for rome it was this same vessel that was shipwrecked off the coast of malta threatened by the growth of christianity the emperor nero began a period of great persecution of christians and in 1865 peter and paul were executed in rome it's several different points there was a major persecution under nero in the 60s under the mission in the 90s and then there were several other major ones as well the effort to crush christianity was carried out by emperor after emperor persecution began under theseus around 250 when the mysticals the bishop of mira was martyred another persecution initiated by valerian eight years later resulted in the deaths of peregorius and leo of patara during periods of persecution christians responded in a variety of different ways of course some of them remain very faithful they actively witness to christ in spite of the persecution in fact some of them even courted martyrdom by trying to be sought out by the authorities well what crime caused the deaths of these men simply they refused to make public sacrifice to the roman deities [Music] it was around a.d 260 into this small besieged christian community that nicholas was born [Music] [Music] nicholas was born in patara in the mid 3rd century however the exact date and year of his birth are not known but he certainly was born into a vibrant greek community in fact his name in the greek language has a profound meaning victory of the people ahead we'll see just how nicholas lived up to that name [Music] nicholas's parents were successful in business they were wealthy and probably traded with merchants passing through this prosperous city his family had embraced christianity no doubt nicholas grew up learning about the apostle paul's visits here perhaps paul or some of his followers were even responsible for the first christian converts in this area and now young nicholas was a part of that growing movement the church but how can we know anything about saint nicholas there seemed to be so many confusing stories about him the puzzle regarding nicholas began in the 9th or 10th century when an author mistakenly or perhaps deliberately combined stories about two bishops called nicholas who lived 200 years apart saint nicholas who eventually became known as nicholas of mira was often confused with nicholas of scion because there were similarities to their stories the man who spent years sorting this out lives in italy [Music] the saint nicholas study center in bari italy was founded in 1990 by dr gerardo jafari dr jafari is a dominican priest whose studies in recent years have brought clarity to our understanding of the real saint nicholas jafari has been able to unravel the confusion between saint nicholas and nicholas of scion and when we have discovered other manuscripts of saint nicholas of zion we have now the possibility without mistake to distinguish what is the nicholas of mayra and what is the necros of zion but experts in the last century weren't entirely convinced that nicholas amira was even a real person the three names charles jones and gustav henrik and then carl meisen who really studied the evidence and the material for nicholas all came away saying we don't know that we can even trust that there was a real person named nicholas who actually existed this is the importance then of father giardo chaffrey who in the 1980s reopened the case and reinvestigated those same documents and far more than those documents and he was able to reassert that there indeed was a historical person named nicholas who lived and and did many of the things that we have attributed to him and he was able to establish that with a great degree of historical certainty dr chufari's research has revealed a distinction between the two nicholas's in ancient greek texts it's very clear aggios is a saint bishop or normal saint so to say osceos is a saint from monks after the distinction of two saints we can say that ours and negroes is argus the other one is osseous jafari believes that the distinction between the two men can also be seen by examining events in their lives for example nicholas of zion went to mayra in the occasion of the feast of saint nicholas of mayra it was not possible to to be the same person now we have the nicholas of mira a real concrete person interested in a very real question of human life the other one se nicholas of zion was a monk carol myers has dedicated years to the study of nicholas and she's responsible for creating one of the best public resources about him it's a website st nicholascenter.org st nicholas stories and legends have grown up around a real man and over time those stories have enlarged and shifted but they're rooted in the character of the man and if it hadn't been that there was something so extraordinary about this person there never would have developed the interest the devotion and the spread of his fame and legends and stories but nothing appears to have been written about nicholas during his lifetime experts can only guess why it may be because he escaped the roman executioner and died a natural death that so little fanfare was made about him but it's more likely the documents were destroyed during the iconoclastic period in the 9th century or during the crusades all we know is that very few documents have ever been found so we have to be sincere we don't know very much about senecas we know very much but in the history but not about the man nicholas very little but this very little is sure dr chufari's research has formed a more accurate picture of nicholas's life for example in russia it's very difficult after my conferences in moscow and kiev they've started to write new lives taking away of zion but it's not easy because iconography even here in the ceiling of the church there are many many apocryphal musicals of zion episodes so there is a real existential problem between iconography that we have to take away or many of these episodes jafari says we need to look at all the evidence with a critical eye while some details come from factual sources other facts with historical value were handed down by oral tradition and some writers obviously took great license and embellished the truth in the latter that we know now we have to distinguish the two episodes of the praxis stratilatis and the other these two are historically sure the other historical sure only in the in the core not in the details so what do we know about the life of saint nicholas we've established that he was raised here in patara by a christian family it speculated that his parents died when he was young because of an epidemic or a plague but we know for sure that his parents left him a considerable sum of money the event that probably had the most to determine how nicholas developed was the death of his parents when he was still young whether he was in his late teens or early twenties if you've ever heard of santa claus you'll probably recognize the next part of this story you have to picture nicholas as a young man not yet a bishop not yet a priest he was looking for purpose in his life and for meaning and something to do with his life when he heard the story of a man in the city of patara who had recently lost everything he was financially ruined he had three daughters and they were of marriageable age but in that time in that part of the world if you didn't have money for a dowry the payment that a woman would have to bring into a marriage you could not be married and so these three daughters couldn't marry and without any means of providing for his daughters the father struggled with the idea of sending them into prostitution nicholas decided to intervene he didn't want to be known or specially called out for his acts of generosity so in the middle of the night he slipped out under cover of darkness and he threw a bag of gold coins through the window into the house it was found in the morning the money was used as a dowry so that one of the girls might be able to marry out of their condition of poverty when nicholas saw how the money was used and how grateful the family was for that act of generosity he decided to return nicholas repeated the action two more times so the other daughters could also be married but the last time the father had hidden in weight to discover who the benefactor was that was helping his family and we heard the bag bang against the floor he sprung up ran out and grabbed hold of this anonymous gift giver and spun him around and nicholas said don't tell anyone because i don't want people to know the father agreed although clearly he did not keep it secret for long because we have come to know this story as well okay let's stop right there you're probably wondering wasn't the money thrown down a chimney and landed in a stocking or a shoe in nicholas time houses did not have chimneys and so the only way that nicholas could toss the gold into the house was through the window in this story of the three dowries of three girls you can see already just the um just the bare essentials of the santa claus story the idea of a nighttime anonymous gift giver and arriving and delivering gifts maybe through an open window and in some later versions nicholas finds that the window is locked and so he has to drop the bag of gold down the chimney where it lands in a stocking that's hanging there uh by the fire to dry so you can already see that there are there are little clues as to where the santa claus story comes from and where it will go i think for that reason this is one of the stories that has become the most popular st nicholas story that we have many artists through the centuries have depicted this famous story with nicholas wearing clerical robes but the event actually took place before he was a bishop it's mistakes such as this that have added to the inaccuracies about him but there's no doubt that later in life nicholas did become bishop of mira a bishop at that time was responsible for representing the community in spiritual and civil affairs but not long after nicholas became bishop one of the fiercest decades of persecution began for christians nicomedia was the capital of the roman province of bithynia and were overlooking the remains of the ancient theater in the city in 256 the goth sacked nicomedia but just a few years later in 284 diocletian was proclaimed emperor just east of nicomedia in one of his first acts he rebuilt a city and called it the new rome and from nicomedia diocletian instigated the worst persecution of christians to date the capital of nicomedia had so many important both imperial and royal buildings and whatever they had here from the workmanship point of view was an excellent piece of work in 303 the emperor diocletian ordered the destruction of the main cathedral here in nicobedia and the burning of every copy of scripture his aim was to rid the empire of what the pagan population believed to be a wretched cult the historian lactantius tells us that diocletian's reign was characterized by excessive cruelty to christians when the emperor diocletian issued the actual edicts of persecution in the year 303 he issued them from nicomedia and that's significant because the persecution was far more intense in the eastern part of the empire in turkey and syria and in egypt than it ever was in any of the western regions of the roman empire tradition holds that methodius bishop of nearby olympus was executed for his faith during the great persecution of 303 and nicholas was thrown into prison if a bishop was specifically targeted for persecution there were various different things that could happen he might be imprisoned he might be forced to give up his sea he might be forced to flee in order to avoid persecution it is possible that he might be executed although in most cases that was relatively rare but one thing that we have to remember is that the people carrying out the edicts did not necessarily have a lot of enthusiasm for the persecution they may have had serious qualms in their conscience about executing a person because he was a christian on june 13th 313 nicholas's world was turned upside down again on that very day in a power play licinius the new emperor of the eastern roman empire issued a letter from his palace in nicomedia it was sent to the governor of every roman province including lithia the letter that lycenius wrote in the year 313 is normally regarded as granting freedom of religion to christians it did that but it actually did more than that because it gave to every person the right either to exercise the christian faith or to exercise another religion by naming christianity specifically the letter elevated christianity from a persecuted status to a favored status within the roman empire the letter of licinius carried a message that echoed throughout the provinces religious freedom for all it decreed the return of church buildings and property that had been confiscated from the christians finally the followers of jesus could practice their faith openly without fear in one of the greatest ironies of history a roman emperor himself now became a christian and with constantine's conversion the future of christianity changed as a result of constantine's conversion and the beginnings of the flow of roman money to the christian church there was a dramatic transformation of christian art within the roman empire in the second and the third centuries christian art in the roman empire had been quite primitive and it was reflective of a very low-class non-cultured constituency but beginning in the fourth century the taste of the roman aristocracy and the money to produce art and architecture worthy of those tastes began to show up in the christian churches we see that in the building of lavish cathedrals we see it in the very lavish decoration of christian cathedrals with frescos mosaics and christian art have a much higher cultural standard than what we've seen previously under constantine an era of church growth began and the use of buildings for worship expanded quickly now for the first time christian leaders had the luxury and the leisure to study and to write extensively it's hard to write commentaries and theological treatises when you're running for your life from the authorities but now that christianity was protected it led to a great golden age of christian literature and many would argue that the fourth and the fifth centuries were the greatest age of theological literature and scholarship in the entire history of the christian church in the midst of it all bishops became men of influence nicholas embraced the opportunity and used his position to combat injustice one such episode is told in part by yustratius of constantinople in ad583 he tells the story of three innocent citizens of meera who were condemned to death the story of the three dowries is certainly the most well-known story today but the oldest story about nicholas is actually called the proxis destrotalitis it's the story of the military officers it came into circulation uh in the early 500s it's the first story known to the latin speaking audience it's the story that appears on many murals and frescoes and churches but it's a story not well known today at all the proxis stratilatus which in english means the practice of military officers was written by an anonymous greek author around ad400 the praxis tells the story of three army officers and their troops who have been sent by the emperor constantine to quell a revolt in phrygia during their journey they harbored their ship in andreaki the port of mira when the officers were visiting bishop nicholas news came that a riot had broken out because of stealing in the chaos three innocent civilians were accused and arrested and the local governor ordered them to be put to death [Music] when nicholas heard this he rushed to the scene accompanied by the three army officers they arrived just as the executioner was raising his sword [Music] fearlessly nicholas grabbed the sword from the executioner and threw it to the ground loosening the men from their chains he set them free what happened next gives us an insight into what kind of person nicholas had become in a word courageous rushing to the praetorium nicholas flung opened the door and confronted the governor hearing what had happened the governor tried to placate the holy man but nicholas didn't hold back saying sacrilegious blood shatter how dare you confront me you've been caught in so many evil acts i'll not spare or forgive you but will let the mighty emperor constantine know how serious are your sins that have been discovered and in what fashion you administer your princely prefecture the governor quickly fell to his knees and begged for forgiveness insisting the two local officials had instructed him to convict the innocent men but nicholas had heard about the plot and knew the governor had been bribed to execute the men so nicholas now demanded justice [Music] the visiting army officers pleaded in behalf of their fellow roman officials finally nicholas granted him pardon providing that all charges against the innocent men were dropped regarding the story of nicholas is confronting the governor about his sins it is of course certainly possible that there's some rhetorical or legendary exaggeration in the story but it's interesting that this story is very much in keeping with other evidence that we have about the way the bishops responded to the roman authorities in their province we have numerous examples of bishops who did not hesitate to condemn the actions of the government even though the government was providing them with the money that they needed for their lifestyle of course not all of the bishops were bold enough to do this but we have enough examples of bishops who did do this that there's nothing inherently incredible about the story we have of nicholas confronting the provincial governor ironically months later the same three army officers were falsely accused in a plot against the emperor however according to the author of the praxis de stratilatus nicholas appeared in dreams to both the accuser and constantine warning them of severe consequences if the officers weren't released you can imagine that this was received by the emperor constantine with either great fury or fear he had the officers brought before him to explain the phenomenon after describing what they had witnessed in mira the officers told constantine that they had prayed to nicholas for help hearing this constantine ordered the soldiers to return tamira bearing gifts and to thank nicholas for their release all the episodes according to dr chafari the detail in which the praxis distratilatus is written makes it an invaluable historical document we cannot write the real life of saint nicholas because the only episode that i believe really historical rooted is the practice the strategist the praxis destroyed a lotus is the oldest fragment that tells us about nicholas and it was written about ad400 and so that is really quite close to nicholas time and it would have been part of a larger life of saint nicholas and unfortunately that life didn't survive but surely the writers who wrote later probably had access to that life today i'm standing in the church of the hagia sophia in downtown iznik in this well-preserved basilica the seventh ecumenical council took place in 787 as the church began to grow in the fourth century a theological dispute arose about the divinity of christ there was a presbyterian alexandria by the name of arius who began to teach that jesus was not an eternal being and there was a time when christ was not the son was therefore a created being and thus not equal to the father to settle this dispute constantine summoned all the bishops to his summer palace when constantine called the bishops together at the council of nicaea in 325 the decision ahead of them was crucial to the future of the christian church because it had to do with the question of whether the church would worship a son who was unequal to the father or fully equal to the father and therefore whether we would worship a trinity of equal persons or an unequal trinity through this gate nicholas would have entered the city of nicaea the modern city of iznik in turkey today there's been much historical debate whether nicholas actually attended this council the problem is that on the list that have 200 attendees his name is not found on these however at least six lists of attendees do include the name of nicholas there are lists but all the lists without his name are no more than 200 names so historically we know that there were more than three hundred the omission of nicholas's name from the shorter list might have occurred because only the names of the bishops who arrived at the start of the council had their names recorded but one thing is certain every list that includes the names of at least 300 bishops includes the name of nicholas and these lists are drawn from authoritative historical sources regarding the story that nicholas slapped darius during the debates at the council of nicaea we don't know for sure whether that's true because we don't have any actual minutes from the council but there's nothing inherently incredible about that the debate at this council and the debates that other councils were often quite rancorous and there are some quite reliable historical accounts that people being slapped or even beaten during the course of those debates so it's not at all implausible that nicholas might have done this the council of nicaea took place here in 325 a.d nicholas must have felt privileged to participate in a critical debate about such a fundamental doctrine of christianity the deity of jesus and he was privileged to sign the creed that is still being recited in the church around the world today we believe in one god the father almighty maker of all things visible and invisible and in one lord jesus christ the son of god begotten of the father the only begotten that is the essence of the father god of god light of light very god begotten not made being of one substance with the father by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate and was made man he suffered and the third day he rose again and ascended into heaven from thence he shall come to judge the quake and the dead and in the holy ghost [Music] me nicholas would have been in his 60s when he attended the council of nicaea tradition says that he was one of the oldest of the attendees as a confessor he could show the council participants the marks in his body received during the era of persecution confessors are people who when faced with persecution or torture do not renounce their faith nicholas was imprisoned in the time of diocletian and did not renounce his faith and so he has regarded as a confessor most people who were named saints in the years of the early church it was because they were martyrs to their faith and had been killed nicholas was regarded as a saint because of the quality of his life rather than the way he died and that makes him an exceptional saint coming out of that era not much remains today of constantine's palace on lake iznik the water level is much higher than it was in the fourth century with just a few stones remaining of the foundation of the palace but recently archaeologists have found the remains of a church underwater nearby [Music] oh [Music] oh there are many other stories written about saint nicholas for example some were documented by michael the archimandrite in the 8th century and many are from the oral tradition in one story nicholas travels 300 miles to appear before the emperor constantine and request that the emperor lower taxes for his region the region of lycia he somehow gets the emperor to agree to a ridiculously low tax rate and has the emperor put it in writing as soon as nicholas leaves the palace of the emperor he rolls up this document that has been signed and sealed by the emperor ties it with a string and throws it into the sea well the next day the emperor constantine realizes that he was a bit too generous that maybe he overextended his grace and that he might want that document back he has nicholas reappear before him nicholas can only say that the document is long gone that he no longer has it and indeed back in myra fishermen have dredged up this document signed by the emperor and when they unfurl it they realize that it is a letter lowering taxes for the region once there was a famine in myra and nicholas was very concerned about that of course because the people were starving and a ship came into port that was loaded with grain on the way to alexandria and nicholas was able to persuade the captain to allow some of the grain to stay and that was unusual because the captain of course had to account for every bit of it when his ship got to alexandria but nicholas told him not to worry that it would be all right and the captain relented and what sold the grain to nicholas and it was enough food that the people ate for two years and there was still grain left over to plant for new crops another story recounts that nicholas destroyed the temple of artemis in meera artemis eluthera combined the attributes of the greek virginal goddess of the hunt with those of the anatolian goddess of fertility civilly certainly nicholas would have used his newly found freedom of worship under constantine to try to stop pagan worship but whether nicholas destroyed the temple of artemis remains in the realm of legend nicholas who is very widely known has the patron saint of sailors in fact it's almost the primary identification in many places there are ships today sailing from russia bulgaria croatia greece and all of the ships will have an icon of nicholas in the wheelhouse and so people sometimes say well how did this happen why is nicholas the patron saint of sailors and everything that has to do with water and the sea there are several stories but one of them is of a ship that was sailing in the mediterranean and a large storm came up and the sailors were desperately afraid that they would perish and so they cried out to nicholas for help and nicholas appeared on the ship and helped the sailors and once it was stabilized the vision was vanished and when the sailors made port they went to the church to give thanks for their being rescued and spared in the storm and it so happened they were in port and the church was bishop nicholas's own church and when they went in they recognized who had helped them and so that is one of the stories that's a root of why he is so highly regarded by sailors around the world there can be no doubt that the life and pastoral care of nicholas had a transforming effect on the local population his dynamic personality boldness and deep commitment to christ made him a legend even in his own day the fragments of fact that we have pieced together depict a man committed to justice and mercy a real father of his people [Music] ancient sources confirmed that nicholas died here in mira on december 6th but none seem to agree on is the year when he died the undeniable fact that a great man of god named nicholas lived during constantine's reign is supported by the use of his name after his death as his fame grew during the 5th century parents everywhere began to name their children after him this church built in mira to commemorate nicholas dates to the 5th century the basilica was built in the shape of a cross and housed the tomb of the saint we have discovered and other archaeologists have discovered many monasteries in the hills around liqueur dating back to the 5th century which is an indication that the area was very special and we believe the reason is that saint nicholas lived there and became famous for curing people of the ailments dr vera bolgurlu is one of the archaeologists excavating the church site can one of these sarcophague in the church be associated with saint nicholas definitely it's in the burial chapel in this outer north texas and the lid is very interesting because it has holes in it it has two rows of holes because it means there were so many pilgrims that maybe two at once could pour oil through there and they believed that once the oil touched the relics and then they collected it on the other side and put it in the pilgrim flasks that this would cure them there are some stories you will see in the frescoes in his life cycle which in which these miracles are recited but you must remember all these paintings are 11th 12th century it's very difficult to to have proof of these miracles but you know mostly people recite these things uh from family to family so we we believe that especially as a greek orthodox i mean i believe that he certainly did perform in his miracles this is a main idea of any pilgrimage to visit the place well which about i read and just to renew in my mind to be more a stronger and more true christian today the church has become a popular site for pilgrims from all over the world especially for russians this statue of nicholas here in the courtyard was donated by the russian government in the year 2000 this is a central idea in church to imitate christ and apostle paul writes to christian imitates me like i imitate christ this is the same in my life also in other priests to imitate some nicholas as he imitated christ [Music] just as nicholas's life was full of drama events after his death were equally sensational [Music] for centuries his remains lay peacefully here in his tomb in mira but a mysterious liquid described as myrrh oozed from the marble sarcophagus some believe it seeped from the saints bones and it's this point that takes us back to italy you see the city of bari had a problem during the norman conquest the city lost its role as the capital of the byzantine province of southern italy at the time cities that had the relics of saints not only received a spiritual blessing but also became pilgrimage centers which led to economic prosperity inspired by the venetians with their saint mark and other italian cities famous for their saints the citizens of bari proposed to find the relics of a saint for their city and who better than nicholas it just so happened that barrio merchants frequently passed mira when they brought goods back from the east in 1087 bahrian merchants moored in the port of andreake and dispatched 47 men disguised as pilgrims to the church of saint nicholas in one of the most famous smash and grab stories in history the men broke the tomb open and grabbed nicholas's bones legend has it that to everyone's surprise the relics were virtually floating in the liquid myrrh his remains were rushed to the ship and the vessel set sail before the monks could sound the alarm on may 9 1087 the ship carrying nicholas's bones sailed into the harbor here in barrie [Music] so barry got its relics and its prestige still continues today in fact barry is often referred to as the city of saint nicholas and nicholas is sometimes called nicholas abari today the basilica of saint nicholas in bari safeguards the saints relics four reinforced concrete blocks ensure that no one is ever going to steal these bones again a small hole in the upper front panel of the sarcophagus is unsealed on the evening of may 9th every year in order to extract the myrrh it's diluted with water and made available to pilgrims over the centuries the fame of this beloved saint has grown across the globe but is there anything else we can learn about the real saint nicholas it just so happens we have a good idea of what he looked like in the 1950s while work was being done on the crypt the vatican allowed measurements and x-rays to be taken of nicholas's skull and other bones then in 2004 a facial anthropologist was engaged to construct a model of the saints head dr carolyn wilkinson is known worldwide for her forensic facial reconstructions this project was a bit of a challenge for me because it involved producing a 3d model from effectively two-dimensional data so in terms of images and craniometrics but also because it involved a significant historical figure and it became a really interesting project to both to have the challenge of creating the 3d model of the skull and then for us to be able to depict what saint nicholas looked like this facial reconstruction helps us know what the real greek santa clause actually looked like but today we have an even better representation in 2014 using the latest 3d interactive technology dr wilkinson updated the facial reconstruction i think textured in a different way what we've got now with our second depiction is basically the same face with some modern air changes but with a completely different uh texture system that's based on what we know about those people in that status from that period of time from that part of the world so the end result should be more reliable and less based on this santa claus image the result is a man in his 60s with a long beard round head and square jaw saint nicholas also had a severely broken nose that healed asymmetrically it may be that this happened during his time of persecution you're looking at a facial facsimile of the real saint nicholas so there's damage to his nasal bones between the eyes and which is consistent with with more than one breakage and then that healing so it's been pushed in one direction and has reformed and healed slightly wonky that would be consistent with a blow to the nose how that happened i don't know that would be speculation it would be consistent with a blow to the nose through somebody's fist could be walking into a post it could be falling off a horse there may be a number of ways how that happened i think it's always really important with famous historical figures to to get a sense of what they were really like as a person and when someone is as important as saint nicholas in terms of how he's been depicted throughout the years having something that's based on science rather than on religion or on propaganda is quite interesting i think so we get a sense of what his face was like there's some speculation in relation to his facial hair etc but what we're getting is a sense of the real person rather than the stories that are associated with sin nicholas nicholas is often referred to as the patron saint of everything and it is almost true his primary patronages are children of course sailors and innocents but he is the patron saint of so many more things and part of it is because so many of the stories have different elements and so anything that relates to any of those different characteristics he became the patron so for example in iran in tehran there is a church in tokyo a great cathedral because the russians wherever went seventy percent as a nicholas church so we have everywhere in the world uh san diego church in the united states are about 500 600 catholics orthodox and protestants this i wanted to say it's a comedicity nicholas was a man of deep faith we should never forget that first and foremost he was a christian pastor a bishop committed to the gospel this should be a monumental fact for christian families who are looking for a way to connect to the christmas season we don't simply have to reject consumerism and santa claus and everything that goes with us we have an opportunity to reclaim a part of our own faith when we reclaim the nicholas story and legacy and heritage in our own family traditions as children everywhere eagerly await the coming of that mythical man on christmas eve the real saint nicholas has left us a legacy to treasure far more than just colorfully wrapped presents saint nicholas has become associated with christmas and that's actually a good thing because saint nicholas helps to bring a focus to jesus who of course is the center of christmas saint nicholas does this by pointing beyond himself and to encouraging people to understand that it really is more about giving than about getting it's more about compassion than consumption it's more about need than greed saint nicholas helps people to focus on what is really the center of christmas because everything saint nicholas did grew out of his faith the legacy of nicholas is his generosity we have to keep going back to the story of the three dowries nicholas had no reason to get involved he didn't know these people he didn't owe them anything and yet he decided to act that should inspire us to get outside of our comfort zone in our familiarity to find those people in our community who really need help and especially during the christmas season it's an appropriate time to look for those opportunities nicholas is often viewed as a jolly sentimental figure but history tells us otherwise it was a bold decisive man of faith who confronted the issues of his day if he were alive now he would be concerned with today's issues hunger human incarceration trafficking slavery the abolition of the death penalty even tax abuse now that's something to tell your children [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] war you

Channel: Vision Video

Views: 166,202

Keywords: Christian Videos, Christian Films, Christian Movies, Religious Movies, Films, Movies, Entertainment, Feature Films, Saint Nicholas: The Real Story full film, Saint Nicholas, The Real Story, Saint Nicholas: The Real Story, Christian movie, Christmas movie, Full movie, Full Film, Religious Movie, Christmas Movie, Religion, Religious, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Christmas, Jesus Christ, Christian holiday, Christmas Eve, North Pole, man of God, jolly, folklore

Id: FoTMhIlpxYQ

Length: 55min 1sec (3301 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020