From Richard Irwin November 2008

Story from the Toy Service

About 1,700 years ago lived a holy man who was to become one of the most famous of saints who is still remembered today. I wonder if you might guess from the story who he is?

The story takes place in a town called Myra which is now in Turkey, when it was ruled by the Romans.

There was a man, called Antonius, who had fallen on hard times. He was a widower with three beautiful daughters; Althea, Betha and Cordelia. In those days (and sometimes even now in some places) to marry a suitable husband the father of the bride had to find a marriage gift, called a dowry.

But since his wife had died, Antonius had been unlucky and was now very poor and the night before his eldest daughter was to marry he found he had no money left for the dowry.

That winter night Antonius knelt beside the fire in his room and prayed aloud to God that Althea, his eldest daughter, should be spared the humiliation of being rejected at the altar by her new husband the next day.

Now the Bishop of the town was walking past the window on his way to pray at the cathedral church as he did every night and he heard the man’s prayer. Being a generous soul the Bishop rushed home and came back with a purse of gold. He was very shy about being thanked for his generosity, so he waited until Antonius fell asleep and then threw the gold through the window in front of the fire.

The next day the Widower awoke and found the gold and praised God loudly. Even though he was poor, he did not keep any of the gold and gave it all to Althea as her wedding dowry.

Well, the next year it was the next daughter’s turn to marry and again Antonius had no dowry to give to Betha’s husband. So again on the night before the wedding, Antonius prayed to God for a way to save Betha’s wedding.

Again the bishop of the town came by on his way to pray in church and again he heard Antonius and once more he ran back to get a purse of gold which he threw through the window when the widower was asleep. Antonius was very thankful to God, but miracle though it might appear, he wondered who it was who might be throwing the gold through the window.

Finally, a year later, it was the turn of Cordelia to marry. Guess what? Yes, Antonius had given all the gold away at Betha’s wedding and there was no dowry left for Cordelia. Now Antonius wondered if the miracle would work a third time, but he thought he would very much like to find the man who gave him the gold so that he could thank him properly for it. So that night after Cordelia had finished washing the clothes for her wedding outfit and had hung up her new white stockings in front of the fire to dry, Antonius again knelt in front of the fire and prayed with all his heart for a dowry for his third daughter. But this time, instead of going to sleep, he hid beneath the window so he could leap up if someone came to throw in any more gold and so catch this mysterious benefactor.

Of course, the Bishop passed the window on his way to Church and heard the Widower’s prayer and his heart was as generous as it always was. He rushed back to his house and found another purse of gold which he brought back to Antonius’ house. But when he looked through the window he could see Antonius was not in bed. So quietly he tiptoed around the other side of the house. There he saw there was a ladder up to the roof and so he climbed up and dropped the purse down the chimney.

Eventually, Antonius could keep his eyes open no longer and fell asleep under the window. In the morning he awoke feeling stiff and horrible from sleeping on the floor and not being in his comfortable bed. He yawned and he stretched and then he remembered the gold. This time there was no purse in front of the fire and Antonius’s heart sank. If only he had just believed that God would provide and not worried about catching the person who threw in the gold. Oh what was Cordelia to do with no dowry? He again knelt down and prayed to God and said sorry for his sin of doubt.

Cordelia, who was excited about her wedding came rushing into the room and grabbed her stockings from in front of the fire. Now the purse of gold that the Bishop had dropped down the chimney had landed in one of the stockings and as she swung around the weight of the gold swung the stocking around also and hit Antonius hard in the back.

“Ow!” he yelled “what was that?”

Now Cordelia looked into the stocking and found the gold and they both jumped for joy. Antonius did not know whether to laugh with happiness or to cry from the pain from the knock the gold had given him, but what he did remember to do was to kneel and thank God again for the gift. So his third daughter happily married and because he had been so generous in giving all the gold to his daughters and had kept nothing for himself, he found his generosity repaid by his children and his grandchildren as they cared for him and loved him as he grew older.

Now as to the Bishop - his love and generosity is still famous today – can anybody guess who he was?

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