Throughout our many studies into the holidays of our Church, we often came across the history of Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus. Many believe that these two are actually of the same personage, thus the celebration of St. Nicholas Day has been removed for a lot of people as they look towards the time of Santa Claus and the gifts he bears. Ironically, our research clearly shows that these two are NOT the same. In fact, Santa Claus may have a resemblence of the saint's name, but there is nothing of his holiness. The Bishop of Myra was such a holy man that for several generations (about four to five) children were still being named after him. So with this in mind, we decided to try to find a way to teach this truth and bring honor back to Saint Nicholas' history and rightful praise to the eternal G-d whom he served.
Realizing the difficulty of the task ahead, we decided to do more research into the legend of Saint Nicholas and found that although little is truly known about him, his stories have important lessons, which are still timely for today. At the same time we also decided to understand what makes holidays more meaningful and enjoyable to families. One of clues we found is the use of stories and songs surrounding the celebration. So we decided, not only will we put something on our website about this history, but we will bring to life some stories about the Bishop of Myra as well as song.
Below is a song we wrote in attempt to tell one of these stories, the first which describes how Saint Nicholas became the Bishop of Myra. We apologize for the format you read, but neither of us is skilled enough in writing down music. However, you may listen to the tune of The Saint Nicholas Song as sung by Carol. The download time will vary, depending upon the speed of your connection (upto 15 minutes). We also have a printer friendly version that is on one page, but in the same format as seen below. All materials here we are offering free for personal and non-profit use. We purposely copyrighted this material so as to allow easy distribution without worry of copyright infringement.
Also, we welcome the skills of anyone who would volunteer to write a score or to place in the chords so that this may be played with greater ease for thosoe interested to use it in their congreagtions. And even if you are like us, unskilled in this manner, we still welcome your comments so we may better serve our L-rd and His people.
Thank you
Written by C.Foegen
| Verse 1 | Verse 2 | Verse 3 | Verse 4 |
| This is a stor-y of My-ra, a place we find near Greece. The Bi-shop there in My-ra was sad-ly now de-ceased | Un known now to the Bishops A ship came in that night And on her was a sailor Who set off for church at first light | They ask the startled sailor Please tell us sir your name? Ni-cho-las, he answered What service shall I claim? | Well, we all know the stor-ies, the school boys and the brine, the vir-gins saved from slav-ery, the crim-inals saved in time. |
| And so they came to My-ra The Bi-shops one and all To find for those in My-ra A new Bi-shop to install | And so our sai-lor, Ni-cholas He reached the church at dawn And came on through the entrance And saw Bishops forlorn | (And) then they told him everything The long night and the vision And how they im-plored Gods guidance And God Him-self revealed him | The soldiers and the em-peror, the famine and the feast, the safe return of Basil, and the Jew a Chris-tian fleeced. |
| They work through the night long search-ing But no good man was found And just as hope was fail-ing The Lords Own Word re-sounds | And when the Bi-shops saw him In hope they gath-ered round And one said to his brothers I think our man is found | Now what could Ni-cho-las do But a-bide the Word of God And be-come My-ras new Bi-shop Fulfill-ing this oath with love | Could one man do such great things? Indeed our L-rd did say, Greater things would happen, with the faithful ones someday. |
| The man you seek is named Ni-cho-las He's dock-ing here at dawn So go to the church and meet him You will not wait too long. | |||
| Refrain: | Refrain: | Refrain: | Refrain: |
| Good and kind Saint Ni-cholas Holy and true Bishop Ni-cholas He pleased our good Father by following His Son, And now the saint's o-wn story can be sung. | Good and kind Saint Ni-cholas Holy and true Bishop Ni-cholas He pleased our good Father by following His Son, And now the saint's o-wn story can be sung. | Good and kind Saint Ni-cholas Holy and true Bishop Ni-cholas He pleased our good Father by following His Son, And now the saint's o-wn story can be sung. | Good and kind Saint Ni-cholas Holy and true Bishop Ni-cholas He pleased our good Father by following His Son, And now the saint's o-wn story can be sung. |
| He pleased our good Father by following His Son, And now the saint's o-wn story is sung. |
Email: cfoegen@angelfire.com
by C.Foegen © 2001
