Archive for September, 2010
Champion of the Poor Souls in Purgatory
Taped on location in Italy
Pope Benedict XVI “Take courage! Fix your gaze on our saints.”
Go to Tolentino where St. Nicholas had his ministry.
Visit his church and monastery. His whole life was dedicated to pray for the Souls in Purgatory. The Basilica has continued on with that tradition. Every day Mass is celebrated for the Souls in Purgatory. He had a vision of a friend who was suffering terribly in Purgatory. He asked for Masses to be celebrated to help him get out of Purgatory. He showed St. Nicholas Purgatory and how the souls were suffering. St. Nicholas celebrated Mass and saw the friend rising up into Heaven.
Pray at his tomb, at the Shrine to his incorrupt arm, a reliquary attesting to the thousands of cures and healings attributed to him. See a Votive Room with testamonies of thousands of miracles, attributed to the intercession of St. Nicholas. Hear the story of the Miraculous Bread of St. Nicholas.
See the tribute to the miracles on behalf of the Poor Souls in Purgatory.
The Santa Claus we know today wears a red suit, flies around in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, lives at the North Pole, and runs a toy factory run by elves. He is a fantasy loved by millions of children around the world. Every year he sends Santa letters to his admirers and brings toys to good girls and boys. But how did this gift-giving icon come to be part of our culture?
A real by the name of Saint Nicholas was the inspiration for today’s Santa Claus. He was born around 280 AD in what is now Turkey . His parents were well-to-do Christians who died when he was still a small child . Following Jesus’ advice to give to the poor , Nicholas gave away his inheritance to the poor and devoted his life to helping those less fortunate. He was named the Bishop of Myra when he was a young man, and he continued to help others , particularly children for the rest of his life.
Saint Nicholas died on December 6, 343 AD, and the anniversary of his passing became known as Saint Nicholas Day.
After his death, Saint Nicholas continued to live on in legend. The Dutch knew him as Sinter Klass, a nickname for Sint Nikolaas, and they brought the legend of Sinter Klaas with them to America. Sinter Klaas became a part of local lore when St. Nicholas was named the patron saint of New York City .
St. Nick continued to evolve into today’s Santa when Washington Irving published a book on Saint Nicholas Day that contained numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character.
However, it was Clement Clark Moore’s classic poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” (now known as “The Night Before Christmas”) that created the now-popular image as “a jolly old elf” with a “little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.” Political cartoonist Thomas Nast helped popularize this image . In 1863 he began drawing a series of cartoons for Harper’s Weekly that were based on the character in the poem and in Washington Irving’s work. The Santa Claus Nash depicted had a beard, a pipe and fur clothing, and became the basis for the modern Santa Claus. The cartoonist was also the one who invented Mrs. Claus, Santa’s elves and the North Pole.
Today this red-suited version of Santa Claus is well known and lives on in the hearts of children around the world.
Originally published here.
To keep the spirit of Santa alive for your children, visit Printable Santa Letters to create personalized letters from Santa Claus that you can print at home on your computer.
LONDON — Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday began a four-day tour of Britain, the first-ever state visit by a pontiff to this island nation, by offering his sharpest critique yet of official lapses that allowed thousands of children to be sexually abused by clerics in a scandal that has rocked Catholic churches across Europe.
Published Sep 16, 2010.
Read more: Pioneer Press