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The Epic Journey from Saint to Santa Claus
Bloomsbury Publishing
November 2005
368 pages ISBN: 1582344191 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography | Historical
An elegantly written, idiosyncratic biography of Santa
Claus, from his saintly origins in Turkey to his current
reign as the king of Christmas.
Nicholas is a biographical travelogue tracing the evolution
of one of the greatest cults of modern times—the rise of
Santa Claus from his origins in Byzantine Turkey to his
role as the jolly man who grants every child’s wish. It is
a compelling story of religious worship and strife,
cultural interpretation, and mass commercialization
brilliantly framed by Jeremy Seal’s modern-day voyage in
Santa’s footsteps. Saint Nicholas, as Santa was originally
known, lived and worked in Myra on the southern coast of
Turkey 1,700 years ago. He became a revered figure in the
Orthodox and Catholic churches, attracting devotees across
the Christian world as his cult shifted westward with the
centuries. The saint’s bones are said to still exist, and
Seal’s dogged pursuit of these relics launches his quest
for Santa’s true lineage—one that takes him through present-
day Turkey, Italy, Holland, England, America, and finally
Lapland as he pieces together the history of this
extraordinary man-to-myth transformation. In the tradition
of Bruce Chatwin and Tony Horowitz, Jeremy Seal is a
natural storyteller, weaving fascinating history and
intrepid travelogue into a book every bit as enchanting as
its subject
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