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The accounts of the life of Saint Nicholas of Myra are confused and it is very difficult to separate fact from fiction. According to tradition he was a native of Patara, formerly a city in the ancient district of Lycia in Asia Minor (in what is now Turkey), the son of rich parents. While he was still a teenager his father and mother died, leaving him a rich man. Even at this early age his generosity was evident. He heard of a destitute noble family with three daughters who lacked money for food, and who could not find a husband for the eldest daughter because there was no dowry. Under cover of darkness Nicholas threw a bag of money through an open window of the nobleman's house so that the daughter now had a dowry, and was able to marry. Eventually Nicholas provided anonymous dowries for each of the other two daughters. His generosity was duplicated on many occasions. The legend even tells of how he would drop coins down chimneys where they would sometimes land in stockings which had been hung by the fireplace to dry. When he was 19 years old, Nicholas became a priest, and subsequently became Bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Turkey. During his time as bishop, the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered merciless persecution of all Christians. People suspected of being Christians were ordered to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. Refusal meant imprisonment. Nicholas was the leader in the refusal of believers to sacrifice. Many of those imprisoned were tortured and brutally killed. Some were fed to wild animals, some forced to fight for their lives against skilled gladiators, and some were burned alive. As a result of their suffering, those who survived were hailed by the people as "saints". Among the survivors was Nicholas of Myra - he was released after the accession of Constantine following the death of Diocletian. Nicholas is said to have been present at the first Council of Nicaea, during which a ship caught in a storm was in danger of foundering. Nicholas was asked to help the sailors. He spent some time in prayer, after which the tempest abated and the ship with its crew was saved. This may be all part of the legend because there is reason to doubt that he was at the Council of Nicaea since his name is not mentioned in any of the old lists of bishops that attended this council. Another story tells of the time when the people of Lycia were suffering from a great famine. Nicholas heard that some ships loaded with wheat had arrived in the harbour, so he went and asked the masters of the ships to give him some. The captains refused because, they said, the grain had all been measured and was destined for the granaries of the Emperor in Alexandria, who would not be too happy if any of the wheat was missing when it was unloaded, and there was no knowing what he would do to show his displeasure. Nicholas assured them that if they did give him some grain, they would still deliver the full amount of wheat to the granaries. In the end they gave him what he asked, and when they arrived in Alexandria and delivered the rest, it was found to be as much as they had loaded in the first place - none was missing. Another story of this famine concerns three little boys who disappeared shortly before a rather sinister butcher advertised that he had some salt pork for sale. Some people seem to have been a bit suspicious, and asked Nicholas for help. He asked to see the barrels of pork, and then he blessed them, at which point out popped the three little boys, naked and very much alive. There are many such stories of miracles performed by Nicholas during his life and in his name after he died. His death occurred on 6th. December, 345 A.D., though one source gives the year as 352. In 1087 some Italian merchants transported his remains from Myra to Bari, Italy, where his tomb is now a shrine. His relics are still preserved in the church of San Nicola in Bari; up to the present day an oily substance, known as Manna di S. Nicola and which is highly valued for its medicinal powers, is said to flow from them. The course of centuries has not lessened his popularity. Many places honour him as patron: Greece, Russia, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Lorraine, the Diocese of Liège, many cities in Italy, Germany, Austria and Belgium, Campen in the Netherlands, Corfu in Greece, Freiburg in Switzerland and Moscow in Russia. He is also the patron saint of mariners, merchants, scholars, virgins, bakers, travellers, children and pawnbrokers, and in the Middle Ages he was regarded by thieves as their patron saint as well. His emblem is three balls, no doubt developed from the three bags of gold which were his legendary gifts of dowries to poor girls. By 1100, Saint Nicholas had become a popular symbol of gift-giving in many European countries. It was he who brought presents to children on the eve of his feast day, December 6. After the Reformation, German Protestants encouraged veneration of the Christkindlein (the Christ child) as a gift giver on his own feast day, December 25, but when the Nicholas tradition prevailed, it became attached to Christmas itself. The term 'Christkindlein' evolved to Kriss Kringle, another nickname for Santa Claus. Various other European Christmas gift givers were more or less similar to Saint Nicholas: Père Noël in France, Julenisse in Scandinavia, and Father Christmas in England. Because the saint's life is so unreliably documented, Pope Paul VI ordered that the feast of Saint Nicholas should be dropped from the official Roman Catholic calendar in 1969, but the English Church still regards his feast day as a Lesser Feast. BILL HUTCHINGS |
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page last updated 2 NOVEMBER 2002 |
