Stone crocs, two Nicolas(es) and miracle cookies
Today’s column was inspired by scenes of Christmas lights and video clips of the giant Agusan crocodile on TV news. We have entered into the so-called “-BER months” – September, October, November and December – that signal shopkeepers and mall-owners to start playing Christmas carols in their stores to generate spending. We are warned against cheap Christmas lights that have no government safety certification, as these could cause a tragedy, like the one suffered by former House speaker whose daughter perished in a fire that consumed his mansion some years ago. The same would have happened to us around the same time when Christmas lights, bought from a posh Makati hardware store, set our Christmas tree on fire. Fortunately, my niece who was sneaking into the house from a party at dawn, when everyone was fast asleep, discovered the fire.
There was a time when crocodiles were plentiful in the Philippines, even in Pasig River, prompting people to bathe there within the safety of a wooden cage to keep the crocs out. Everyone is familiar with the crocodile scene in Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere”: during a riverside picnic, Elias and company are dismayed to find the fish trap empty, so the oarsman Elias dives to check it out only to be set upon by a crocodile. Ibarra jumps in with a knife and saves Elias.
Then there is a place in Mandaluyong called “Buwayang Bato” that figures in the third chapter of “El Filibusterismo” where Padre Salvi related one of the legends of the Pasig River to Simoun, as the Bapor Tabo made its way on the river between Pasig and Mandaluyong:
“[S]ince we are talking of legends, let us not forget the loveliest for being the truest, that of the miracle of San Nicolas, the ruins of whose church you have just seen.” It seems that formerly, the [Pasig] river , like [Laguna de Bay], was infested with crocodiles, so huge and voracious that they attacked and overturned bancas with their tails. Our chronicles narrate that one day, an infidel Chinaman, who until then had refused to be converted, was passing by the church when all of a sudden the devil appeared to him as a crocodile, and overturned his banca to devour him and take him to hell. Inspired by God, the Chinese at that moment invoked San Nicolas, and instantly the crocodile turned into stone. According to the ancients, in their time the monster was easily recognizable in the scattered pieces that were left of the rock. I myself can assure you that I still was able to distinguish clearly the head, and judging by it, the monster must have been enormous.
Unfortunately, this river landmark is no more, but the legend remains in a Mandaluyong street and barangay both called “Buwayang Bato” (Stone Crocodile). The ruins of the visita or chapel built in gratitude by this unknown Chinese are likewise gone, but the legend is recorded in travel accounts about the Philippines. San Nicolas was invoked against crocodiles. Didn’t the Chinese turn the crocodile into stone by saying “San Nicolasi?” I have a feeling the pious chroniclers heard wrong because what they recorded as “Nicolasi!” might have been a rude Chinese word, an expletive that begins with “p” and ends with “si.”
We have forgotten the Buwayang Bato and the San Nicolas we know today is a fat jolly man in red from the North Pole who delivers gifts to children, as he rides a sleigh pulled by a red-nosed reindeer. The original Santa Claus was a miracle-working, fourth-century bishop of Myra named Nicholas whose fame spawned such names as: Colin, Claus, Nicole, and – would you believe – Nixon!
St. Nicholas of Myra saved three maidens from prostitution by purchasing them from their pimp with three balls of gold, thus some pawnbrokers use three golden balls as a trademark symbol. Nicholas also brought three dead children to life after finding them pickled in brine and about to be cooked and served to unsuspecting patrons of a cannibal’s inn. The connection between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus comes from the Low Countries where the saint is the patron of children who get gifts on his feast day, Dec. 6. This caught on in North America and developed into Santa Claus.
San Nicolas in the Philippines is not Nicolas of Myra or Santa Claus, but San Nicolas de Tolentino (1245-1305) whose cult was propagated by Augustinian and Recollect friars. San Nicolas’ desperate childless parents visited the shrine of Nicholas of Myra and got their wish – a son they named Nicolas who grew up and became an Augustinian friar.
During an illness, Nicolas saw a vision of the Virgin Mary who told him to take a small piece of bread soaked with water. He did so and was healed, thus starting the tradition of Pan de San Nicolas or St Nicholas’ bread, which is blessed by Augustinian and Recollects and distributed on his feastday, Sept. 10. You still see these dry sweet cookies made from arrowroot (araro) and coconut cream (gata) in Pampanga, which was once an Augustinian province. These cookies are embossed with an image of the saint holding a basket of rolls. From stone crocodiles to two saints named Nicholas, to miracle cookies, all are a hearty mix of European legends reinvented by Filipinos and made into our own.
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Tomorrow, Sept. 10 at the Ayala Museum, at 3 p.m., I’m giving a lecture on Rizal’s love life: “Queridas ni Rizal: Love and Sex in Philippine History.”
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