..not St. Christopher over there on the right. Click on the “Image Source” link, and it will take you to an article on Francis Xavier in art, and an account of the painting from which that image is taken. Francis Xavier had a dream of carrying an Indian on his back, and this scene dramatizes that dream.
I missed St. John Damascene yesterday. I actually had some links and images lined up, but then…forgot? I don’t know. Mike Aquilina has a bit here.
Oh, but we won’t forget tomorrow. If you’re not already aware of it, please head to the great St. Nicholas Center website for all of your St. Nicholas needs – and I mean all of them from stories to recipes to coloring sheets to art to history.
I …er..I mean St. Nicholas just returned from a trip to the World Market to pick up some shoe-filling chocolate coins and I…well, I mean..oh forget it – I noticed that in all the plenty of Euro-goodness filling the aisles, there’s no actual St. Nicholas items. There’s some Santa chocolates and of course Santa ornaments and decorative items, but it strikes me that as important as St. Nicholas is in Europe, items bearing his image instead of Santa would be easy to come by and would sell well. Yes, I know that Santa is growing in popularity in Europe, too, but I’m sure there’s plenty of St. Nicholas candy, cookies and decorative stuff to be found.
Years ago, in Lakeland, I picked up some cheap but very nice resin St. Nicholas figures – about four different styles – at Walgreen’s for heaven’s sake. Walgreens. It was after Christmas, and they were probably about a dollar each. They remain some of my favorite Advent/Christmas season decorations.  That’s one of them on the left. Note the snow in the background. Finally got our first snow, but thankfully it was only enough to cause a delay, not a cancellation, at least for the hardy kids in the city. All the other districts in the county, plus the Catholic high schools, cancelled school today for three inches of snow…but not the Catholic grammar schools or the city public schools!
But you don’t see St. Nicholas much these days in the shops…even Walgreen’s. Of course, I’m not a big shopper (I hate shopping, as a matter of fact, much to the distress of my daughter), so perhaps I’m wrong. It’s too bad because the irony is that, at least according to my perceptions, celebrating St. Nicholas day in some form or another is growing in popularity among many Christians, not just Catholics and the Orthodox.