The Institute of English Studies of the University of Wrocław invites to a lecture entitled “Saint Nicholas and his winter rivals”
The lecture will be delivered in English by prof. dr hab. Leszek Berezowski. The event will take place on 6 December 2022 in the Aula Leopoldina at 10:15. The speech will be streamed on UWr fb.
St Nicholas is a remarkable figure, and not just because he is associated with December presents. He was bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, or today’s Demre in Turkey, where he died in the reputation of holiness on 06.12.343. In the following centuries, however, his image underwent fascinating metamorphoses.
The first of these was initiated by the transfer of St Nicholas’ relics to Bari, Italy, in 1087. In Europe, St Nicholas quickly became one of the most popular saints, the patron saint of hundreds of churches and streets (including Wrocław’s St Nicholas Street), taking on the image of the Catholic bishop he is known as today. All that is left of his Greek prototype is a bushy beard and red robes, and St. Nicholas transformed himself from the patron saint of sailors into a protector of children and students, to whom he brought small gifts with the help of their parents.
When the Reformation demolished the cult of the saints, Luther’s heart trembled that his children would not see presents in December and, after much hesitation, he decided in 1535 that the baby Jesus would bring them on Christmas Day. When the American writer W. Irving created a secular double of St. Nicholas in 1809 (book publication date 06.12!), subsequent Protestant authors were in no doubt that he should be associated with Christmas. So they equipped him with a sleigh, presents, reindeer and the name Santa Claus, which reflects the American pronunciation of the name St Nicholas used by the Dutch founders of New York. Contributors to the further evolution of the image of this rival Santa Claus included American presidents (F.D. Roosevelt and J.F. Kennedy), the Canadian government (granted citizenship and e-passport), Coca-Cola (perfected the garment) and many others.
To learn the full story of Santa Claus and his winter rivals (because Santa Claus is not the only one), join us for a Santa lecture on 6 December at 10:15.
Prof. dr hab. Leszek Berezowski – a graduate of English Studies at the University of Silesia, employee of the University of Wrocław, fascination with English prepositions and specialist translation. The vast majority of his publications to date have been devoted to both these fields, focusing on the use of English prepositions in proper names and the translation of Polish and English legal documents. Author of the world’s only monograph on the English zero preposition, The Myth of the Zero Article, published by Continuum / Bloomsbury, and a six-book series on the translation of legal and economic documents published by Wydawnictwo C.H. Beck. In his spare time, a fan of Santa Claus.
