Fresco_St_Nicholas_Church_of_St_Nicholas_Demre.
350 St. Nicholas Bishop of Myra Council of Nicaea condemned Arianism
doweried 3 little girls released falsily condemned men saw the devil get on
the ship, intending to sink it and kill all the passengers calmed waves of
the sea by his prayers mortally injured sailor restored to health
Myræ, quæ est metrópolis Lyciæ, natális
sancti Nicolái, Epíscopi et Confessóris, de quo, inter
plura miraculórum insígnia, illud memorábile fertur,
quod Imperatórem Constantínum ab intéritu quorúmdam
se invocántium, longe constitútus, ad misericórdiam per
visum mónitis defléxit et minis.
At Myra, which is the metropolis of Lycia, the birthday
of St. Nicholas, bishop and confessor, of whom it is related, among other
miracles, that, while at a great distance from Emperor Constantine, he appeared
to him in a vision and moved him to mercy so as to deter him from putting
to death some persons who had implored his assistance.
St. Nicholas, called "of Bari",
Bishop of Myra (Fourth Century)
St. Nicholas
only son of pious parents Theophanes and Nonna, who had
vowed to dedicate him to God. He has promised to help those who remember his
parents, Theophanes and Nonna.
The great veneration with which this saint has been honored
for many ages and the number of altars and churches which have been everywhere
dedicated in his memory are testimonials to his holiness and of the glory
which he enjoys with God. He is said to have been born at Patara in Lycia,
a province of Asia Minor. Myra, the capital, not far from the sea, was an
episcopal see, and this church falling vacant, the holy Nicholas was chosen
bishop, and in that station became famous by his extraordinary piety and zeal
and many astonishing miracles. The Greek histories of his life agree that
he suffered imprisonment of the faith and made a glorious confession in the
latter part of the persecution raised by Dioletian, and that he was present
at the Council of Nicaea and there condemned Arianism. The silence of other
authors makes many justly suspect these circumstances. He died at Myra, and
was buried in his cathedral.
This summary account
by Alban Butler tells us all that is known about the life of the famous St.
Nicholas, and even a little more; for his episcopate at Myra during the fourth
century is really all that seems indubitable authentic. This is not for lack
of material, beginning with the life attributed to the monk who died in 847
as St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople. But he warns us that "Up to
the present the life of this distinguished Shepard has been unknown to the
majority of the faithful", and sets about enlightening their ignorance nearly
five hundred years after the saint's death. This is the least unreliable
of the "biographical" sources available, and a vast amount of literature,
critical and expository, have grown up around them. Nevertheless, the universal
popularity of the saint for so many centuries requires that some account of
these legends should be given here.
We are assured that from his earliest days Nicholas
would take nourishment only once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that in the
evening according to the canons. "He was exceedingly well brought up by
his parents and trod piously in their footsteps. The child, watched over
by the church enlightened his mind and encouraged his thirst for sincere
and true religion". His parents died when he was a young man, leaving him
well off and he determined to devote his inheritance to works of charity.
An opportunity soon arose. A citizen of Patara had lost all his money, and
had moreover to support three daughters who could not find husbands because
of their poverty; so the wretched man was going to give them over to prostitution.
This came to the ears of Nicholas, who thereupon took a bag of gold and,
under cover of darkness threw it in at the open window of the man's house.
Here was a dowry for the eldest girl and she was soon duly married. At intervals
Nicholas did the same for the second and third; at the last time the father
was on the watch, recognized his benefactor and overwhelmed him with his
gratitude. It would appear that the three purses represented in pictures,
came to be mistaken for the heads of three children and so they gave rise
to the absurdstory of the children, resuscitated by the saint, who had been
killed by an innkeeper and pickled in a brine-tub.
Coming to the city of Myra when the clergy and
people of the province were in session to elect a new bishop, St. Nicholas
was indicated by God as the man they should choose. This was at the time
of the persecutions at the beginning of the fourth century and "As he was
the chief priest of the Christians of this town and preached the truths of
faith with a holy liberty, the divine Nicholas was seized by the magistrates,
tortured, then chained and thrown into prison with many other Christians.
But when the great and religious Constatine, chosen by God assumed the imperial
diadem of the Romans, the prisoners were released from their bonds and with
them the illustrious Nicholas, who when he was set at liberty returned to
Myra."
St. Methodius asserts
that "thanks to the teaching of St. Nicholas the metropolis of Myra alone
was untouched by the filth of the Arian heresy, which it firmly rejected as
death-dealing poison", but says nothing of his presence at the Council of
Nicaea in 325.
According to other traditions he was not only there
but so far forgot himself as to give the heresiarch Arius a slap in the face.
Whereupon the conciliar fathers deprived him of his episcopal insignia and
committed him to prison; but our Lord and His Mother appeared there and restored
to him both his liberty and his office. As against Arianism so against paganism,
St. Nicholas was tireless and took strong measures: among other temples he
destroyed was that of Artemis, the principal in the district, and the evil
spirits fled howling before him. He was the guardian of his people as well
in temporal affairs.
The governor Eustathius
had taken a bribe to condemn to death three innocent men. At the time fixed
for their execution Nicholas came to the place, stayed the hands of the executioner
{ went up to the executioner and took his sword, already suspended over the
heads of the condemned,} and released the prisoners. Then he turned to Eustathiujs
and did not cease to reproach him until he admitted his crime and expressed
his penitence. There were present on this occasion three imperial officers
who were on their way to duty in Phrygia. Later, when they were back again
in Constantinople, the jealousy of the prefect Ablavius caused them to be
imprisoned on false charges and an order for their death was procured from
the Emperor Constantine. When the officers heard this they remembered the
example they had witnessed of the powerful love of justice of the Bishop of
Myra and they prayed to God that through his merits and by his instrumentality
then might yet be saved. That night St. Nicholas appeared in a dream to Constatine,
and told him with threats to release the three innocent men, and Ablavius
experienced the same thing. In the morning the Emporor and the prefect compared
notes, and the condemned men were sent for and questioned. When he heard that
they had called on the name of the Nicholas of Myra who had appeared to him,
Constatine set them free and sent them to the bishop with a letter asking
him not to threaten him any more but to pray for the peace of the world.
For long this was the most famous miracle of St. Nicholas, and
at the time of St. Methodius was the only thing generally known about him.
The accounts are unanimous that St. Nicholas died
and was buried in his episcopal city of Myra, and by the time of Justinian
there was a basilica built in his honor at Constantinople. An anonymous Greek
wrote in the tenth century that, "the West as well as the East acclaims and
glorifies him. Wherever there are people, in the country and the town, in
the villages, in the isles, in the furthest parts of the earth, his name is
revered and churches are built in his honor. Images of him are set up, panegyrics
preached and festivals celebrated. All Christians, young and old, men and
women, boys and girls, reverence his memory and call upon his protection.
And his favors, which know no limit of time and continue from age to age,
are poured out over all the earth; the Scythians know them, as do the Indians
and the barbarians, the Africans as well as the Italians."
When Myra and its great shrine finally passed into the hands
of the Saracens, several Italian cities saw this as an opportunity to acquire
the relics of St. Nicholas for themselves. There was great competition for
them between Venice and Bari. The last-named won, the relics were carried
off under the noses of the lawful Greek custodians and their Mohammedan masters,
and on May 9, 1087 were safety landed at Bari, a not inappropriate home seeing
that Apulia in those days still had large Greek colonies. A new church was
built to shelter them and the pope, Bd. Urban II, was present at their enshrining.
Devotion to St. Nicholas was known in the West long before his relics were
brought to Italy, but this happening naturally greatly increased his veneration
among the people, and miracles were as freely attributed to his intercession
in Europe as they had been in Asia. At Myra "the venerable body of the bishop,
embalmed as it was in the good ointments of virtue exuded a sweet smelling
myrrh, which kept it from corruption and proved a health giving remedy against
sickness to the glory of him who had glorified Jesus Christ, our true God."
The translation of the relics did not interrupt this phenomenon, and the "manna
of St. Nicholas" is said to flow to this day. It was one of the great attractions
which drew pilgrims to his tomb from all parts of Europe.
It is the image
of St. Nicholas more often than that of any other that is found on Byzantine
seals; in the later middle ages nearly four hundred churches were dedicated
in his honor in England alone; and he is said to have been represented by
Christian artists more frequently than any saint except our Lady. St. Nicholas
is venerated as the patron saint of several classes of people, especially,
in the East, of sailors and in the West of children. The first of these patronage
is probably due to the legend that during his life time, he appeared to storm
tossed mariners who invoked his aid off the coast of Lycia and brought them
safely to port. Sailors in the Aegean and Ionian seas, following a common
Eastern custom, had their "star of St. Nicholas" and wished one another a
good voyage in the phrase "May St. Nicholas hold the tiller". The legend of
the "three children" gave rise to his patronage of children and various observances,
ecclesiastical and secular, connected there with; such were the boy bishop
and especially in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the giving of
presents in his name at Christmas time. This custom in England is not a survival
from Catholic times. It was popularized in America by the Dutch Protestants
of New Amsterdam who had converted the popish saint into a Nordic magician
(Santa Claus = Sint Klaes = Saint Nicholas) and was apparently introduced
into this country by Bret Harte. It is not the only "good old English custom"
which, however good, is not "old English", at any rate in its present form.
The deliverance of the three imperial officers naturally caused St. Nicholas
to be invoked by and on behalf of prisoners and captives, and many miracles
of his intervention are recorded in the middle ages.
Curiously enough the greatest popularity of St.
Nicholas is found neither in the eastern Mediterranean nor north-western
Europe, great as that was, but in Russia. With St. Andred the Apostle he
is patron of the nation, and the Russian Orthodox Church even observes the
feast of his translation; so many Russian pilgrims came to Bari before the
revolution that their government supported a church, hospital and hospice
there. He is a patron saint also of Greece, Apulia, Sicily and Loraine, and
of many citiesand dioceses (including Galway) and churches innumerable. At
Rome the basilica of St. Nicholas in the Jail of Tully (in Carcere) was founded
between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries.
He is named in the preparation of the Byzantine Mass.
Two
very able studies of St Nicholas and his cult have been published since
1900. The earlier is that of G. Anrich, Hagios Nikolaos…in der
griechischen Kirche (2 vols., 1917). In this will be found all the Greek
texts of any interest, much better edited than those in Falconius or Migne,
as well as a full introduction and notes. The second work is that of K. Meisen,
Nikolauskult und Nikolausbrauch im Abendlande (1931), with many pictorial illustrations.
See on this the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. 1 (1932), pp. 178—181,
where attention is drawn to the fact that one Latin text printed by Meisen
is taken from a manuscript written in the ninth century, thus proving that
the story of St Nicholas was already known in the West two hundred years before
the translation of his relics to Ban. An imposing Vie de S. Nicolas
by Jules Laroche should be read in the light of the criticisms in
the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xii, p. 459. On the folk-lore
of St Nicholas among the Hellenes see further the book of N. G. Politis (in
modern Greek) Laographika symmikta (1931), and on other
aspects of the legend J. Dorn in Archiv f. Kulturgeschichte,
vol. xiii (1917), especially p. 243 R. B. Yewdale, Bohemond
I, Prince of Antioch, p. 31 Karl Young, The Drama of the
Medieval Church (1933), passim. On the emblems
of St Nicholas and his treatment in art, consult, besides Künstle, Ikonographie, vol. ii, and Drake, Saints
and their Emblems, the monograph of D. van Adrichem, published both
in Italian and in Dutch in 1928. The miraculous “manna” of St Nicholas still
finds ardent champions e.g. in P. Scognamilio, La Manna di San Nicola (1925).
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.
As the fruit of the prayer of his childless parents,
the infant Nicholas from the very day of his birth revealed to people the
light of his future glory as a wonderworker. His mother, Nonna, after giving
birth was immediately healed from illness. The newborn infant, while still
in the baptismal font, stood on his feet three hours, without support from
anyone, thereby honoring the Most Holy Trinity. St Nicholas from his infancy
began a life of fasting, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he would not accept
milk from his mother until after his parents had finished their evening prayers.
From his childhood Nicholas thrived on the study
of Divine Scripture; by day he would not leave church, and by night he prayed
and read books, making himself a worthy dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.
Bishop Nicholas of Patara rejoiced at the spiritual success and deep piety
of his nephew. He ordained him a reader, and then elevated Nicholas to the
priesthood, making him his assistant and entrusting him to instruct the flock.
In serving the Lord
the youth was fervent of spirit, and in his proficiency with questions of
faith he was like an Elder, who aroused the wonder and deep respect of believers.
Constantly at work and vivacious, in unceasing prayer, the priest Nicholas
displayed great kind-heartedness towards the flock, and towards the afflicted
who came to him for help, and he distributed all his inheritance to the poor.
There was a certain formerly rich inhabitant of
Patara, whom St Nicholas saved from great sin. The man had three grown daughters,
and in desparation he planned to sell their bodies so they would have money
for food. The saint, learning of the man's poverty and of his wicked intention,
secretly visited him one night and threw a sack of gold through the window.
With the money the man arranged an honorable marriage for his daughter. St
Nicholas also provided gold for the other daughters, thereby saving the family
from falling into spiritual destruction. In bestowing charity, St Nicholas
always strove to do this secretly and to conceal his good deeds.
The Bishop of Patara decided to go on pilgrimage
to the holy places at Jerusalem, and entrusted the guidance of his flock to
St Nicholas, who fulfilled this obedience carefully and with love. When the
bishop returned, Nicholas asked his blessing for a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land. Along the way the saint predicted a storm would arise and threaten the
ship. St Nicholas saw the devil get on the ship, intending to sink it and
kill all the passengers. At the entreaty of the despairing pilgrims, he calmed
the waves of the sea by his prayers. Through his prayer a certain sailor
of the ship, who had fallen from the mast and was mortally injured was also
restored to health.
When he reached the ancient city of Jerusalem and
came to Golgotha, St Nicholas gave thanks to the Savior. He went to all the
holy places, worshiping at each one. One night on Mount Sion, the closed doors
of the church opened by themselves for the great pilgrim. Going round the
holy places connected with the earthly service of the Son of God, St Nicholas
decided to withdraw into the desert, but he was stopped by a divine voice
urging him to return to his native country. He returned to Lycia, and yearning
for a life of quietude, the saint entered into the brotherhood of a monastery
named Holy Sion, which had been founded by his uncle. But the Lord again indicated
another path for him, "Nicholas, this is not the vineyard where you shall
bear fruit for Me. Return to the world, and glorify My Name there." So he
left Patara and went to Myra in Lycia.
Upon the death of Archbishop John, Nicholas was
chosen as Bishop of Myra after one of the bishops of the Council said that
a new archbishop should be revealed by God, not chosen by men. One of the
elder bishops had a vision of a radiant Man, Who told him that the one who
came to the church that night and was first to enter should be made archbishop.
He would be named Nicholas. The bishop went to the church at night to await
Nicholas. The saint, always the first to arrive at church, was stopped by
the bishop. "What is your name, child?" he asked. God's chosen one replied,
"My name is Nicholas, Master, and I am your servant."
After his consecration
as archbishop, St Nicholas remained a great ascetic, appearing to his flock
as an image of gentleness, kindness and love for people. This was particularly
precious for the Lycian Church during the persecution of Christians under
the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Bishop Nicholas, locked up in prison together
with other Christians for refusing to worship idols, sustained them and exhorted
them to endure the fetters, punishment and torture. The Lord preserved him
unharmed. Upon the accession of St Constantine (May 21) as emperor, St Nicholas
was restored to his flock, which joyfully received their guide and intercessor.
Despite his great gentleness of spirit and purity
of heart, St Nicholas was a zealous and ardent warrior of the Church of Christ.
Fighting evil spirits, the saint made the rounds of the pagan temples and
shrines in the city of Myra and its surroundings, shattering the idols and
turning the temples to dust.
In the year 325 St Nicholas was a participant in
the First Ecumenical Council. This Council proclaimed the Nicean Symbol of
Faith, and he stood up against the heretic Arius with the likes of Sts Sylvester
the Bishop of Rome (January 2), Alexander of Alexandria (May 29), Spyridon
of Trimythontos (December 12) and other Fathers of the Council.
St Nicholas, fired with zeal for the Lord, assailed
the heretic Arius with his words, and also struck him upon the face. For this
reason, he was deprived of the emblems of his episcopal rank and placed under
guard. But several of the holy Fathers had the same vision, seeing the Lord
Himself and the Mother of God returning to him the Gospel and omophorion.
The Fathers of the Council agreed that the audacity of the saint was pleasing
to God, and restored the saint to the office of bishop.
Having returned to his own diocese, the saint brought
it peace and blessings, sowing the word of Truth, uprooting heresy, nourishing
his flock with sound doctrine, and also providing food for their bodies.
Even during his life the saint worked many miracles.
One of the greatest was the deliverance from death of three men unjustly condemned
by the Governor, who had been bribed. The saint boldly went up to the executioner
and took his sword, already suspended over the heads of the condemned. The
Governor, denounced by St Nicholas for his wrong doing, repented and begged
for forgiveness.
Witnessing this remarkable event were three military
officers, who were sent to Phrygia by the emperor Constantine to put down
a rebellion. They did not suspect that soon they would also be compelled to
seek the intercession of St Nicholas. Evil men slandered them before the
emperor, and the officers were sentenced to death. Appearing to St Constantine
in a dream, St Nicholas called on him to overturn the unjust sentence of the
military officers.
He worked many other miracles, and struggled many
long years at his labor. Through the prayers of the saint, the city of Myra
was rescued from a terrible famine. He appeared to a certain Italian merchant
and left him three gold pieces as a pledge of payment. He requested him to
sail to Myra and deliver grain there. More than once, the saint saved those
drowning in the sea, and provided release from captivity and imprisonment
.
Having reached old
age, St Nicholas peacefully fell asleep in the Lord. His venerable relics
were preserved incorrupt in the local cathedral church and flowed with curative
myrrh, from which many received healing. In the year 1087, his relics were
transferred to the Italian city of Bari, where they rest even now (See May
9).
The name of the great saint of God, the hierarch
and wonderworker Nicholas, a speedy helper and suppliant for all hastening
to him, is famed in every corner of the earth, in many lands and among many
peoples. In Russia there are a multitude of cathedrals, monasteries and
churches consecrated in his name. There is, perhaps, not a single city without
a church dedicated to him.
The first Russian Christian prince Askold (+ 882)
was baptized in 866 by Patriarch Photius (February 6) with the name Nicholas.
Over the grave of Askold, St Olga (July 11) built the first temple of St
Nicholas in the Russian Church at Kiev. Primary cathedrals were dedicated
to St Nicholas at Izborsk, Ostrov, Mozhaisk, and Zaraisk. At Novgorod the
Great, one of the main churches of the city, the Nikolo-Dvorischensk church,
later became a cathedral.
Famed and venerable churches and monasteries dedicated
to St Nicholas are found at Kiev, Smolensk, Pskov, Toropetsa, Galich, Archangelsk,
Great Ustiug, Tobolsk. Moscow had dozens of churches named for the saint,
and also three monasteries in the Moscow diocese: the Nikolo-Greek (Staryi)
in the Chinese-quarter, the Nikolo-Perervinsk and the Nikolo-Ugreshsk. One
of the chief towers of the Kremlin was named the Nikolsk.
Many of the churches devoted to the saint were
those established at market squares by Russian merchants, sea-farers and
those who traveled by land, venerating the wonderworker Nicholas as a protector
of all those journeying on dry land and sea. They sometimes received the name
among the people of "Nicholas soaked."
Many village churches in Russia were dedicated to the
wonderworker Nicholas, venerated by peasants as a merciful intercessor before
the Lord for all the people in their work. And in the Russian land St Nicholas
did not cease his intercession. Ancient Kiev preserves the memory about the
miraculous rescue of a drowning infant by the saint. The great wonderworker,
hearing the grief-filled prayers of the parents for the loss of their only
child, took the infant from the waters, revived him and placed him in the
choir-loft of the church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) before his wonderworking
icon. In the morning the infant was found safe by his thrilled parents, praising
St Nicholas the Wonderworker.
Many wonderworking icons of St Nicholas appeared
in Russia and came also from other lands. There is the ancient Byzantine embordered
image of the saint, brought to Moscow from Novgorod, and the large icon painted
in the thirteenth century by a Novgorod master.
Two depictions of
the wonderworker are especially numerous in the Russian Church: St Nicholas
of Zaraisk, portrayed in full-length, with his right hand raised in blessing
and with a Gospel (this image was brought to Ryazan in 1225 by the Byzantine
Princess Eupraxia, the future wife of Prince Theodore. She perished in 1237
with her husband and infant son during the incursion of Batu); and St Nicholas
of Mozhaisk, also in full stature, with a sword in his right hand and a city
in his left. This recalls the miraculous rescue of the city of Mozhaisk from
an invasion of enemies, through the prayers of the saint. It is impossible
to list all the grace-filled icons of St Nicholas, or to enumerate all his
miracles.
He has promised to help those who remember his parents, Theophanes
and Nonna.
St Nicholas is also commemorated
on May 9 (The transfer of his relics) and on July 29 (his nativity).
Nicholas of Myra
(Bari) B (RM) St. Nicholas was probably born to wealthy
parents at Patara in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. He was chosen bishop
of the then rundown diocese of the capital of Myra, which he ruled with great
care and faith. There he became known for his holiness, zeal, and miracles.
To these meager facts legend, however, has supplied colorful details. His
first 'biography' was written in the 9th century; a more popular one was written
by Simon Metaphrastes in the 10th century.
Greek histories hold that he suffered imprisonment and made
a famous confession during the persecution of Diocletian. He was present
at the Council of Nicaea, where he condemned Arianism--one story holds that
he actually slapped the heretic Arius. He died at Myra in Lycia. However,
there is no historical support for either his confession nor his attendance
at the council.
By the time of Justinian (6th century), there was
a basilica built in his honor at Constantinople. From the 9th century in the
East and the 11th century in the West, he has been one of the most popular
saints of Christendom and the subject of many legends. These hold that he
was a wealthy young man who decided to devote his money to charitable activities
and his life to converting sinners.
The legends tell of how St. Nicholas, still sticky
from the womb, rose up out of his first bath to fold his hands and raise his
eyes to heaven in order to cleanse his heart before his body. He is also said
to have taught his wet nurse about mortification by refusing her breast more
than once on each Wednesday and Friday--a precocious exercise of asceticism!
Nicholas could have found communion with God in
a monastic life, but to walk within the confines of a cloister would be insufficient
for the saint's devotion. He wanted to be able to follow the footsteps of
Jesus in the Palestine, which he did. On his voyages across the sea, he calmed
the waves (which is why he is patron of sailors and travellers).
A citizen of Patara
lost his fortune, and because he could not raise dowries for his three daughters,
he was going to give them over to prostitution. After hearing this, Nicholas
took a bag of gold and threw it through the window of the man's house at night.
The eldest girl was married with it as her dowry. He performed the same action
for each of the other girls. The three purses, portrayed in art with the
saint, were mistakenly thought to be the heads of children, and thus originated
the story that three children, murdered by an innkeeper and pickled in a
tub of brine, were resuscitated by Nicholas. The three purses are also thought
to be the origin of the pawnbrokers' symbol of three gold balls.
Another legend holds that he
appeared to sailors caught in storms off the coast of Lycia and led them safely
into port. Churches built under his dedication are often placed so that they
can be seen off the coast as landmarks.
Yet another legend has it that he appeared to Constantine
in a dream and thereby caused him to save three unjustly condemned imperial
officers from death. Possibly another version says that the governor of
Myra took a bribe to condemn to death three innocent men. The executioner
was about to kill them when the bishop of the city, Nicholas, appeared and
prevented the execution. Turning to the governor, the saint upbraided him
till he confessed his sin and begged to be forgiven.
When Myra fell into the hands of the Saracens,
Italian cities seized the chance to acquire the relics of Nicholas. The relics
were stolen by Italian merchants and came to Bari in southern Italy in 1087.
A new church was built to shelter them, and Pope Urban II was present at their enshrining.
The already popular saint became even more highly regarded thereafter. The
shrine became one of the great pilgrimage centers of medieval Europe. Many
miracles were reputed to have been worked through his intercession.
The popular cultural representation of "St. Nick"
is based on a combination of Low Countries' custom of giving children presents
on his feast day as their patron, and the Dutch Protestants of New Amsterdam
(now New York) linking this to Nordic folklore of a magician who punished
naughty children and rewarded exemplary ones with presents. (It should be
noted that the figure of Santa Claus is really non-Christian and is based
on the Germanic god Thor, who was associated with winter and the Yule log
and rode on a chariot drawn by goats named Cracker and Gnasher.)
Throughout Europe in the middle ages, St. Nicholas's
feast day was the occasion for electing a Boy Bishop, who reigned until the
feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28. Even in this century the custom
survives in Montserrat in Catalonia, Spain (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley,
Delaney, Encyclopedia, White).
St. Nicholas's emblem in art is three balls. Sometimes
he is portrayed (1) as a young man throwing three golden balls into the window
of three poor girls; (2) raising three children from a pickle tub; (3) rescuing
survivors from a shipwreck; (4) reviving a man unjustly hanged (not to be
confused with Nicholas of Tolentino, who is never a bishop); or (5) as a new-born
babe praising God. Venerated at Bari, Monserrat, and Russia (Roeder).
Patron of children
(Santa Claus, Sint Klaus), bankers, captives (because of the rescue), pawnbrokers
(three balls), and sailors (for miraculously saving doomed mariners off the
coast of Lycia) (Roeder), brides, unmarried women (because he provided dowries),
perfumers (from his shrine at Bari there was said to originate a fragrant
'myrrh'), of travellers, pilgrims, and safe journeys (because he reputedly
travelled to the Holy Land and Egypt), maritime pilots (White), boatmen,
fishermen, sailors, dock workers, stevedores, brewers, coopers, bootblacks,
the unjustly judged, and poets (Encyclopedia). Russia, Greece, Sicily, Lorraine,
Moscow, Freibourg, and Apulia all fall under his patronage, too (White).
St. Nicholas of Myra (also called "of Bari", and "the Wonderworker")
is one of the world's most venerated saints. Oddly, too; for although he
was certainly the bishop of Myra in Asia Minor in the early fourth century,
little else is known about him.
People have replaced the missing data
on his life with a great many stories that may or may not contain some element
of truth. The best of these stories deals with his charities and his miracles.
Mediterranean sailors, for instance,
consider Nicholas their patron saint. That is because, as one legend informs
us, sailors on a storm-tossed ship once invoked his aid. The bishop, who
was still alive at that time, suddenly appeared to the distraught mariners.
He led them out of the tempest and into a safe harbor. From this event springs
the phrase used by Mediterranean sailors to bid each other bon voyage: "May
St. Nicholas hold the tiller!"
But the best-known story about him was his secret charity to
the three marriageable daughters of a widower of Patara in present-day Turkey.
This widower, having lost his wealth, could
not afford to pay wedding dowries for his three daughters, so he was tempted
to allow them to gain a living by immoral means. Learning of this frightful
possibility, Nicholas (still a wealthy layman) quietly dropped a gift through
the window of the father's house. (Sometimes the gift is represented as a
purse full of gold coins; sometimes, as a ball of solid gold.) This welcome
gift enabled the man to marry off his eldest daughter with dignity. Then Nicholas
tried the same trick again, and the middle daughter was able to be given
in marriage. By now the widower was determined to discover who his benefactor
was, so he lay in watch. When the saint came to drop in the third gold ball,
he was caught red-handed and profoundly thanked by the widower and his family.
On the basis of this legend, not only bankers but pawn-brokers
adopted Nicholas as their patron saint!
The international popularity acquired by this bishop-saint was
amazing. A tenth-century writer testified to his fame in the Near East, India,
Africa and Europe. After Constantinople fell to the Moslems in 1453, traders
from Bari, Italy, stole (or "rescued") the saint's relics preserved at Myra
and brought them to Bari in southern Italy, where they still remain enshrined.
This helped Nicholas to acquire further popularity in western Europe. Eventually
over 2,000 churches in France and Germany chose Nicholas as patron, and England
had 400 dedicated to him. Lorraine, Sicily, Greece and Russia honor him as
a national patron.
Naturally, St. Nicholas, as the bringer of secret gifts, is
especially popular among children. For centuries, he has been represented
in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands as the kindly one who on December
5, the eve of his feast, travels around in secret to leave sweetmeats in
the shoes of sleeping youngsters.
After the Reformation,
when Protestant countries minimized saints, the Dutch Calvinists who emigrated
to "New Amsterdam" kept Nicholas in their folklore, not as a bishop but as
a gift-giver. ("St. Nicholas" in the Netherlands tongue, is "Sinter Klaas"
or Santa Claus.) Imported to the U.S.A., Klaas no longer dressed in a bishop's
vestments but in a secular suit of red cloth trimmed with white fur. The Dutch-American
"Sinter Klaas" eventually gained wide popularity in the United States, even
among those of non-Dutch background. Klaas's residence was now given not
as Myra nor Bari, but the North Pole.
The real Bishop Nicholas is still venerated by the Catholic
Church and the Orthodox Church as befits a saint so universally beloved.
When we get to heaven, make a point of taking this charitable prelate aside
and asking him, "What is the real story of your life?" Father Robert F McNamara
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Mary Mother of GOD 15
Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary 
Saints of this Day December
06 Octávo Idus Decémbris 
"The West as well as the East acclaims and glorifies him. Wherever there
are people, in the country and the town, in the villages, in the isles, in
the furthest parts of the earth, his name is revered and churches are built
in his honor. Images of him are set up, panegyrics preached and festivals
celebrated. All Christians, young and old, men and women, boys and girls,
reverence his memory and call upon his protection. And his favors, which know
no limit of time and continue from age to age, are poured out over all the
earth; the Scythians know them, as do the Indians and the barbarians, the
Africans as well as the Italians." anonymous of Saint Nicolas 
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict
XVI met with Aram I Catholicos of
Cilicia, the highest authority of
the Orthodox Church.
The Pope remembered the
martyrs of the Armenian Church and the Armenian
genocide, without explicitly mentioning
it, and denounced the persecution of Christians
in modern times. Benedict
XVI
June 19, Trinity Sunday, 1991: 
Recognizing the need to build up the strength of subjugated Rus,
the saint urged Prince Yuri Danilovich of Moscow to make peace with the holy
Prince Michael of Tver. He also advised Yuri to journey to the Horde to receive
the throne. In 1304, the saint installed 
The Maximov Icon of the Mother of God was written in 1299, after
Holy Hierarch Maximos, Metropolitan of Vladimir (+ 1305, commemorated 6 December)
had experienced a vision. On the Icon, the Mother of God is depicted at full-length,
with the Pre-eternal Infant and with Metropolitan Maximos, who is kneeling
before her and receiving from her hands the hierarchical omophorion. The Icon
was written to commemorate the appearance to Holy Hierarch Maximox of the
Most-holy Mother of God, an apparition which took place upon his arrival in
Vladimir from Kiev. In the vision, the Mother of God entrusted to him an
omophorion