Good morning! As Christmas approaches, you're bound to see memes on social media with references to the legend that St. Nicholas struck the heretic Arius at the Council of Nicaea. I've heard this for years, but I could never find the primary source on this - in other words, what's the earliest reference to the story and where does it come from?
As a patristics scholar, I knew there was nothing about it in any document from the early Church. So, keeping in mind that the Council of Nicaea was in 325 AD (and by the way, I think it is true that St. Nicholas of Myra, the real St. Nick, was actually there at the council) - there was no reference to the great saint giving the great heretic the opportunity to turn the other cheek until the middle ages.
Well, with the help of a Eastern Orthodox friend, I found the reference. It's from a story of the life of St. Nicholas that's included in a medieval collection of lives of the saints called the Synaxarion. Here's the original excerpt:
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
So begins a song I wrote back in the day, to commemorate the martyrs of Rome - which was the point of the name of the band I had for about 20 years - the band was called Remember Rome. The song was called Midnight Light. At about midnight on the night between July 18th and 19th, in the year 64 AD, the emperor Nero's men started the great fire in Rome, which would be blamed on the Christians, starting the long trajectory of Roman persecution of the Church. Here's a video of Remember Rome playing the song - do I look younger? This was recorded right around the turn of Y2K, about 25 years ago.
