Saint Nicholas
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's that time of year when the beloved Santa Claus comes around once again. But the celebrated image of this prolific gift-giver is based on an even more fabled figure - that of Saint Nicholas, a 3rd century Christian bishop famed for his generosity and compassion. He was thought to be a miracle worker, and through his divine acts he became one of Christianity's most popular patron saints.
His life is unsurprisingly shrouded in myth and legend, so help make sense of it all, Dan is joined once again by Eleanor Janega, co-host of the Gone Medieval podcast.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Ella Blaxill.
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Transcript
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| 0:50.0 | Hello everyone and a warm festive welcome to Dan Snow's history hits. |
| 0:55.0 | It's that time of year when we start looking at the history behind our festive moments |
| 1:00.0 | and what could be more Christmasy than Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick. |
| 1:05.6 | Also that is Nicholas of Myra or Nicholas of Bari. |
| 1:08.2 | So called because the Italians stole his corpse as you'll, and relocated it in Bari. |
| 1:14.0 | He lived at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century AD. |
| 1:16.6 | Towards the beginning of the Roman Empire's Christian journey, we don't know very much about |
| 1:19.8 | him. |
| 1:20.8 | We think his parents died of an epidemic when he was a child. He was affluent and he used his inheritance to help the poor and the sick before becoming a bishop. |
| 1:30.0 | Much of what we think we know after that is hagiography, it's legend and myth. |
| 1:35.8 | And to talk me through it, to help me make sense of it all, is the one and only, the very |
| 1:40.1 | brilliant, Eleanor Janica. |
... |
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