STEALING SAINT NICK

The author of Nicked (2024), a historical novel for adults, dishes up an equally rousing narrative based on his research on St. Nicholas, featuring flagrant heists, holy miracles, and human nature at its best and worst.

Weaving careful speculation into tours of archeological sites, close readings of (often conflicting) original accounts, and interviews with experts, Anderson retraces the ups and downs of both the legends and the remains of the fourth-century Anatolian St. Nicholas of Myra, aka Santa Claus. He also ventures down significant byways, including a consideration of the First Crusade’s ugly legacy of religious extremism, and adds fascinating tidbits, like some male scholars’ insistence that ancient “many-breasted” statues of fertility goddess Artemis are actually swathed in sacrificial bull scrota. An entertaining account tells how rival gangs of 11th-century looters both claimed to have brought the saint’s holy relics home to their cities of Bari and Venice (where they still, supposedly, reside). The author argues persuasively that Santa has gone from being a charitable miracle worker and scourge of pagan demons to a modern idol, a “lo-res, tinny version of the Christian God,” who exhibits godlike omniscience (“He knows if you’ve been bad or good”) and abilities. His enduring legends, Anderson insightfully reflects, challenge us to consider how older ideas of ethics, morality, and heroism relate to our own beliefs and how vitally important it is to listen to others’ stories.

Historical writing at its most thrilling and thought-provoking.