 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
|
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 
Among the most important titles we have in
the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory
and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of
the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom.
The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our
Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for
the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope
Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City
praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing
the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in
using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require
spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had
its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.
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