PORT TOWNSEND — Children who gathered at the Port Townsend Public Library learned that, yes, there is a Santa Claus.
“We consider it gift from our church to acquaint the community with the real St. Nicholas, the one who really did, and does, exist,” said Father Nicholas Kime.
Kime is the priest at St. Hermann of Alaska Orthodox Church, who for the second year, presented the story of his patron saint, a 4th century bishop in Asia Minor. Wearing the traditional black robes, Kime told the story of St. Nicholas’ birth into a wealthy family and how he gave away all his possessions and became a priest.
Known and loved for his generosity to the poor, Kime said, the bishop liked to help people anonymously, giving rise to a story about how he delivered money to a poor man for his daughter’s dowry by dropping a sack of coins down the chimney, where it fell into a stocking hung up to dry.
“What I like about St. Nicholas is that he did good things in secret,” Kime told the children.
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The rest of the story appears in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News.