Most likely some of us believe Santa is an invention of Coca Cola. And it is highly possible that the current myth of Santa could be as a result of Coca Cola. However, behind the myth, there is a historical character, a true story, which exceeds fantasy and leaves a legacy we want to follow as Amparo.
Epifanio and Juana, prayed for 30 years for a child and finally he was granted to them. Tradition tells us that his name was Nicholas de Myra (c. 280-343), popularly known as Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, or Father Christmas.
Epifanio and Juana were a wealthy Greek couple from the Lycia region (Turkey). They were known for their piety and godliness. They raised their son Nicholas according to the teachings of the Bible and from a young age he was known for his soft and generous heart. Suddenly and tragically, Nicholas’s parents died from a plague that swept through Turkey, leaving the young man an orphan, but with many material possessions. Surprisingly, Nicholas decided to dedicate his life to giving away all his family’s wealth to the poor and following a very austere monk’s life.
On one occasion, Nicholas heard about an older man who once had a lot but lost it all. The man was the father of three daughters and the situation was so difficult that the father was considering giving his daughters as servants. Since the father had no money for the daughters to marry, if he died and his daughters had not married, the father knew his daughters might end up as slaves or even prostituting to survive. The custom at the time was for the father of the bride to give the groom a dowry along with his daughter’s hand.
When he found out about the problems of this family, Nicholas knew he wanted to do something to help. In order to spare them the humiliation of accepting charity and not wanting any recognition for himself, he went to the house in the middle of the night, opened a window from the outside, and dropped a bag full of gold coins. The next morning the father found the bag of gold and without asking any questions immediately arranged the marriage of his first daughter. After the wedding, Nicholas repeated what he had done, with another bag of gold, and the father gave the second daughter in marriage.
The father, very interested in knowing the identity of the mysterious benefactor, decided to stay up every night next to the window where they had found the two bags of gold until he discovered who was generously giving to them. Nicholas, on the third time bringing gold coins, was discovered by the father of the family. The man fell to his knees in gratitude and Nicholas forbade him to speak about it, claiming that it was God himself who had provided for him, not a man.
Nicholas is one of the most remarkable, and definitely most popular, men in the history of the Church. Although at Amparo we don’t fill bags with money and drop them through windows, we are definitely in the same Spirit as Nicholas and want to help and protect as many girls as possible.
