Hello my friends! I’m Nick, the man behind The Uncle Nick project.
I’m 38, a historian, author, historical educator, and a Conservative Christian.
I beleive that our society had already lost most of the virtues it once had; it stopped reproducing them and instead left any virtues and ideals – and through my work I hope to help people, young and old, the old chivalric ideals like courage, loyalty, duty, honor, faith, and a readiness to protect and serve the others around.
I’m doing my best to live by the example of the great Christian men of the past – and among those closest to me are the men from Prince Bohemond, commander of the First Crusade, to King Louis the Saint, to renowned general Stonewall Jackson, strong in his faith as much as in his military talent.
While I lived in Southern Italy for three years, I created there a Medieval reenactment and fencing club called Furore Normannorum. It was intended to be not merely a hobby club but to educate the people about the local history of Italo-Normans who united all the Italin South in 11th century and then became the backbone of the First Crusade to liberate the Holy Land.
It was a mix of historical reenactment, physically demanding fencing trainings, education and assistance to local tourism at once.
On the photo it’s me with my first club members, excited to train in the style of Medieval knights.
While I lived in Southern Italy, I became vigorously involved into all kinds of historical work – from the more traditional scholarly researches on local history of the Middle Ages, Antiquity and the times of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, and up to popularization of this knowledge among the local people and tourists.
I find the latter part especially important – I believe that historical knowledge should not be a merely academic thing but instead it must be widely known among the people of the nation. At first, history is who we are, what is our civilization like – and for our Christian civilization nowadays it’s especially important to know our roots; secondly, history is full of great examples of people who professed those virtues that I mentioned above – like honor, courage, faith – and often in quite complicated and dangerous situations; it’s great for everyone and even more so for children to learn from those.
Now I’m starting the similar progect in America to revive virtues and encourage people to know about who they really are.
This is exactly why I wrote my first book “Christian Kings and Their Deeds” – I wanted to show the history of our Christian civilization not in timelines and big events but through the faces of fifty most devout Christian monarchs and to demonstrate that while they all were different, and often they had to make complicated choices and hard decisions, had to suffer and endure dangers – they remained loyal to Christ and to their people.
I also actively participated in educational programs for school kids in cooperation with local museums and schools – here on the photo you can see me presenting the Medieval history of the lands around as an authentic Italo-Norman knight, wearing my personal steel armor.
As an avid reader my library, both print and digital, has several hundred books by now – doing my best to read through them all but that’s really quite a challenge.
But my hobbies and interests go much further than purely academic ones. I’m also a huge fan of many kinds of outdoor activities – with favorite ones being probably hiking around some nice forests, hills and national parks, and firearms shooting. Kayaking was a thing that I discovered by a pure chance and loved it instantly too – both in the open sea and whitewater. Funny enough, I never yet tried camping but eager to do it on the first occasion.
In my free time I’m also a landscape photographer. When I do this kind of photography I’m trying not just to show the landscape but to demonstrate that special beauty, those emotions that I experienced while being around.
Another thing that I love a lot is road trips across America; it’s a special kind of pleasure to drive around nice countrysides, visit small historical towns, explore them, find some obscure local landmarks and of course more nature parks around.
One day I am planning to have a nice small family homestead in a beautiful rural area of our great country.
I have never been married yet but I truly hope one day to find the Christian lady with whom we will be together forever. I consider this as my life’s most important mission. I always felt that modern dating had went to the wrong direction by making the quest for relationships, a basic and natural thing for every man and woman, to be like some industrialized CV checking.
It’s just wrong and dehumanizing, this attempt to replace feelings and emotions with checklists and “shopping”, and I’m sure it’s not possible to formalize the feeling of love at all. I do not have “lists” of what kind of person I look for – instead I seek for mutual compatibility, respect and that special feeling inside the souls of two.
I believe that this Quest for love is akin to the legendary Quest for the Grail – and just like the latter it also requires a pure heart to find one.
You can contact me through the contact form on this website or directly via my email theunclenick@yahoo.com.