On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:27:04 -0800, John Kulig wrote:
>Oh yes, that time of year again! Time to again tell my story of the dark side 
>of St. Nicolas ... 

Nice of you to get into the spirit of the season. ;-)

>at the first Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325 CE, in 
>which early Christians debated whether Jesus was mere prophet (the Arius 
>"heresy" as it is now called) or something greater, St. Nicholas of Myra, 
>Turkey whacked Arius in the face (whether it was a punch or slap is unclear 
>...) 

I know how he must have felt.  There are many times that I've
wanted to do that on the internet. ;-)

>he was stripped of his position, but was quickly reinstated. I guess when 
>argument fails there is always physical persuasion - a reminder that religion 
>is not always lovey-dovey. 

Moreover...

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!

>Most of his bones (relics) are still in Italy, but Turkey wants them 
>back ... 

There was a bit on this in the Wikipedia entry.

>interesting tradition of the Orthodox to preserve bones, dividing 
>them up amongst different churches. I did a little bit of traveling 
>this weekend, and on the spur of the moment visited an "old calendar" 
>church on the north shore of Boston that had bones from over a 
>dozen saints. No St. Nicolas if I recall, but there is a small Orthodox 
>church in northern New Hampshire that actually has a bone 
>fragment (very small I might add) of St. Nicholas on site. 

I wasn't raised in the Orthodox church but Eastern Rite Catholic.
There wasn't the same focus on relics (at least that I can remember)
but isn't the focus on relics because they are capable of producing
miracles?  Or am I wrong in this?

-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]



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