The Demise Of The Saint?

On February 14, 1969, Pope Paul VI removed St. Nicholas (and 92 other saints, including St. George of England) from the calendar of saints. This started a minor, although worldwide, furor. The New York Times carried a dispatch under the heading ‘Santa Is Saying Good-by As Major Catholic Saint."

A report by the Reuters News Agency from Rome, and dated December 24, 1969, stated: ‘Santa Claus is having his last Christmas this year as a major Roman Catholic saint. When the new Catholic calendar comes into force January 1, Santa—St. Nicholas of Bari—will be relegated from obligatory to voluntary veneration for the world’s 700 million Roman Catholics.’"

The Papal Court stated that no saint, expunged or optional, was dead: "Saints who lost their places or whose feast days were demoted from universal to optional [e.g. Nicholas] in the new edition of the liturgical calendar are still to be venerated as they were before the calendar’s updating."

In short, St. Nicholas was not removed from the catalog of Saints. Rather his feast day of December 6^th was changed from obligatory veneration to voluntary veneration.