"Epic" movie coming about The Real St. Nick
Look for some kind of cinematic release maybe next Christmas or Xmas* '08, they're saying. The little website impresses visually, at least! And if you're in western New York state (where the flick is being shot and produced), you may already be seeing a one-minute tease on TV, and the website will have a two-minute version available starting at 12:01am EST (USA) Christmas morning. (Is that 05:01 UT, or 06:01?)
And they say we'll get the real story about the Council of Nicea,** not the DaVinci Code version.... Also the Orthodox/Catholic memory of Holy Emperor Constantine the Great, Equal-to-the-Apostles (although I never heard him called a Saint by Rome), not the "Fall of the Church" Protestant version I used to adhere to. There's even an "elf"-precursor among the characters, a Little Person childhood friend of Nicholas'. But of course, the focus is on Nicholas' life himself, from childhood to orphanhood (I didn't know that!) to religious persecution to his episcopate, for which he's best-known.
Some interesting comments here.
(*-Remember, it's not an X, it's a Chi for Christ!!!)
(**-Nicholas was there...and assaulted the 'unitarian' heretic Arius...and got in trouble for it!)
And they say we'll get the real story about the Council of Nicea,** not the DaVinci Code version.... Also the Orthodox/Catholic memory of Holy Emperor Constantine the Great, Equal-to-the-Apostles (although I never heard him called a Saint by Rome), not the "Fall of the Church" Protestant version I used to adhere to. There's even an "elf"-precursor among the characters, a Little Person childhood friend of Nicholas'. But of course, the focus is on Nicholas' life himself, from childhood to orphanhood (I didn't know that!) to religious persecution to his episcopate, for which he's best-known.
Some interesting comments here.
(*-Remember, it's not an X, it's a Chi for Christ!!!)
(**-Nicholas was there...and assaulted the 'unitarian' heretic Arius...and got in trouble for it!)
posted by me at 10:00 PM
2 Comments:
Well, I for one, do not have much hope for "accuracy" if St. Nicholas is being portrayed as an orphan. The Orthodox Church teaches the following:
Saint Nicholas, the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia is famed as a great saint pleasing unto God. He was born in the city of Patara in the region of Lycia (on the south coast of the Asia Minor peninsula), and was the only son of pious parents Theophanes and Nonna, who had vowed to dedicate him to God. (from the OCA website).
His uncle was Bishop Nicholas of Patara who ordained him reader and then priest, and made him his assistant.
Thanks for posting, Herman! I can claim no expertise myself, but there appears to be plenty of Web-evidence (FWIW) suggesting St. Nicholas was orphaned at around the age of 14. So maybe I should've said, "from childhood, to orphanhood," instead of the other way around. I'll fix that. I don't know if what we're seeing here is a difference between Orthodox and non-Orthodox traditions...then again, I don't know that the filmmakers are Orthodox, though according to the site they seem to be trying to draw from both Eastern and Western traditions or suggestiveness (in a manner of speaking), trying to tie-in with at least some of what viewers will already 'know' about him. If I may, not unlike that old claymation Santa Claus program that made us say, 'Oh, THAT'S where that came from!' - the sleigh, the North Pole, the beard, etc. - though of course in the latter case much of it wasn't even faithful to the modern "Santa Claus" pseudo-legend, nevermind the real St. Nicholas!
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