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The Nicolaasjaar

Catholic Amsterdam Proclaims a Year of Saint Nicholas

A TINY RELIC of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker has provided an excuse for Amsterdam Catholics to organise a whole year of festivities dedicated to the holy man and his legacy. The Basilica of St Nicholas stands just across from Centraal Station, gateway to the Dutch capital for so many visitors, and the parish has received as a gift the relic from the Benedictine abbey of St Adalbert’s in Egmond.

The tiny sliver of St Nicholas’s rib was enshrined in the Basilica at a special Mass opening the Nicolaasjaar on the eve of the saint’s feast in December. Bishop Jan van Burgsteden presided and prayers were also offered for HKH Princess Catharina-Amalia whose eighteenth birthday fell days later on 7 December.

The opening of the year met with wide coverage in the media, with even the website of the city proclaiming “There will always be a bit of Sinterklaas in Amsterdam from now on”.

“Saint Nicholas is really coming to Amsterdam now,” deacon Rob Polet told the evening news on Dutch television, “and here he will stay”.

“From the Friesch Dagblad to the Nederlands Dagblad, from Trouw to De Telegraaf: hardly any newspaper wanted to miss it,” the parish reports. “De Stentor, the Eindhovens Dagblad, the Zeeuwse PZC, and many other titles spread the news of St Nicholas. NRC Handelsblad and Het Parool even used it twice.”

Egmond Abbey was first founded by Northumbrian saint Adalbert in A.D. 920, and Brother Adelbert who manages the relic treasury there said his telephone was off the hook. “It’s been like this for a few days. Journalists keep calling! I speak to everyone.”

The Benedictine monk has a great devotion to the relics collected over the centuries at Egmond, which he says help to make the faith tangible.

On his work desk there is a molar that tradition upholds came from the mouth of the apostle Saint Andrew. “The Last Supper was eaten with that tooth. It brings everything so close.”

“We stand on the shoulders of the saints and martyrs. They passed on their faith to us. The great thing is that I can be part of the chain.”

St Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra whose most well-known story was the help he provided to the three daughters of a poor widower. They were living in poverty and in danger of resorting to prostitution until Holy Nicholas threw three sacks of coins through their window (or, some say, down their chimney) to provide them with dowries and save them from the streets.

In addition to this year of piety, the Netherlanders are, as ever, a practical people and are raising money for a foundation that helps victims of sex trafficking. The parish reports:

In 2021, the sexual exploitation of Amsterdam students and young women is a major problem (presumably worsened under Covid). It is a significant part of the criminal money flows in our city. There are various factors that make it difficult for victims to get out of the abuse and then pick up their lives again. Unfortunately, there is also a need now for people and organizations who, just like Nicholas, offer help and assistance, even though the problems still seem so great.

A good sale of Nicolaasjaar-themed products means the parish has already handed over its first donation of 500 euros to help.

The Year of St Nicholas also has a beautiful emblem based on the pilgrim tattoos of the medieval era. It was designed by the legendary Dutch tattoo artist Henk Schiffmaker who grew up in a Catholic family that ran the butcher shop in Harderwijk, Gelderland before he made his way to Amsterdam. Dutch public broadcaster NPO recently featured Schiffmaker on its Catholic affairs programme ‘Kruispunt’.

The logo features on the special Saint Nicholas beer that has been released in collaboration with the Brouwerij de Prael. Sint Nicolaasbier is a spicy tripel — 7.5 per cent strong. “Tripel refers to the three daughters who were secretly donated a dowry at night by our city patron so that they would not turn into prostitution,” the Nicolaasjaar bulletin elaborated.

In addition to Schiffmaker’s logo, the bottles also feature part of the painting ‘The gift of Saint Nicholas’ by Cornelis de Vos which hangs in the museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder where the Catholic parish dedicated to Saint Nicholas met during the height of the Protestant domination.

Brouwerij de Prael is an Amsterdam brewery founded in 2001 to give a chance of work to people at a distance to the labour market who find it difficult to find work elsewhere — for example people with psychiatric complaints.

Their special brew featured at a 22 January lecture by Father Marcus Vankan, author of the book Heilige Nicolaas, bruggenbouwer tussen Oost en West: 1700 jaar devotie, legenden en volksgebruiken (‘Holy Nicholas, bridge-builder between East and West: 1,700 years of devotion, legends, and folk customs’, published by Leon van Dorp). Fr Vankan is also deputy chairman of the St Nicholas Society of the Netherlands.

“There were more than fifty visitors,” the parish said of the lecture, “also many people from outside the Church. Many of those present took part in the Eucharist beforehand and received the blessing with the manna of Saint Nicholas. The first bottle of Sint Nicolaasbier was handed over to Henk Schiffmacher that afternoon. He briefly told us about the design of the Nicolaasjaar logo. Schiffmacher then stamped a pilgrim tattoo on the leader and on Pastor Fennis.”

The Nicolaasjaar runs until Sunday 11 December 2022. Further lectures are planned, including the antiques dealer Ricus Dullaert on images of Saint Nicholas and Inigo Bocken, biographer of St Titus Brandsma, on what holiness is and what it means to us. There will be a coordinated event involving all the churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas across the Netherlands on 14 May and you can keep up with the latest Nicolaasjaar news through the parish website.

And the Sint Nicolaasbier can be ordered through a desk in the church or within the EU by emailing the parish (administration@nicolaas-parochie.nl).

Proost!

Published at 11:30 pm on Monday 28 February 2022. Categories: Church Netherlands Saints Tags: , , , .
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