Saint Nicholas

01St.

02Nicholas of Myra, traditionally March 15, 270 to December 6, 343, also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Patera in Anatolia, in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey, during the time of the Roman Empire.

03Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker.

04St.

05Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, toymakers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe.

06His reputation evolved among the pious, as was common for early Christian saints, and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the folklore of Santa Claus, St.

07Nick, through Sinterklaas.

08Little is known about the historical St.

09Nicholas.

10The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and probably contain legendary elaborations.

11He is said to have been born in the Anatolian seaport of Patera, Licia, in Asia Minor to wealthy Christian parents.

12In one of the earliest detested and most famous incidents from his life, he is said to have rescued three girls from being forced into prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house each night for three nights so their father could pay a dowry for each of them.

13Other early stories tell of him calming a storm at sea, saving three innocent soldiers from wrongful execution, and chopping down a tree possessed by a demon.

14In his youth, he is said to have made a pilgrimage to Egypt and Syria-Palestina.

15Shortly after his return, he became Bishop of Myra.

16He was later cast into prison during the persecution of Diocletian, but was released after the accession of Constantine.

17An early list makes him an attendee at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, but he is never mentioned in any writings by people who were at the council.

18Late, unsubstantiated legends claim that he was temporarily defrocked and imprisoned during the council for slapping the heretic Arius.

19Another famous late legend tells how he resurrected three children who had been murdered and pickled in brine by a butcher planning to sell them as pork during a famine.

20Fewer than two hundred years after Nicholas's death.

21The S.T.

22Nicholas' church was built in Myra under the orders of Theodosius II over the site of the church where he had served as bishop, and his remains were moved to a sarcophagus in that church.

23In 1087, while the Greek Christian inhabitants of the region were subjugated by the newly arrived Muslim Seljuk Turks, and soon after the beginning of the East-West Schism, a group of merchants from the Italian city of Bari removed the major bones of Nicholas's skeleton from his sarcophagus in the church without authorization and brought them to their hometown, where they are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Nicola.

24The remaining bone fragments from the sarcophagus were later removed by Venetian sailors and taken to Venice during the First Crusade.

25Biographical sources.

26Very little is known about St.

27Nicholas's historical life.

28Any writings Nicholas himself may have produced have been lost, and he is not mentioned by any contemporary chroniclers.

29This is not surprising, since Nicholas lived during a turbulent time in Roman history.

30The earliest mentions of St.

31Nicholas indicate that, by the 6th century, his following was already well established.

32Less than two hundred years after St.

33Nicholas's probable death, the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, ruled 401-450, ordered the building of the church of St.

34Nicholas in Myra, which thereby preserves an early mention of his name.

35The Byzantine historian Procopius also mentions that the Emperor Justinian I, ruled 527-565, renovated churches in Constantinople dedicated to St.

36Nicholas and St.

37Priscus, which may have originally been built as early as circa 490.

38Nicholas's name also occurs as Nicholas of Myra of Licia on the 10th line of a list of attendees at the Council of Nicaea included by Theodore Lecter in the Historia Ecclesiasticae Tripartidae Epitome, written sometime between 510 and 515.

39A single, offhand mention of Nicholas of Myra also occurs in the biography of another saint, St.

40Nicholas of Schaun, who apparently took the name Nicholas to honor him.

41The Life of St.

42Nicholas of Schaun, written around 250 years after Nicholas of Myra's death, briefly mentions Nicholas of Schaun visiting Nicholas's tomb to pay homage to him.

43According to Jeremy Seal, the fact that Nicholas had a tomb that could be visited serves as the almost solitary definitive proof that he was a real historical figure.

44In his treatise De Statue Animarum Postmortem, written circa 583, the theologian Eustratius of Constantinople cites St.

45Nicholas of Myra's miracle of the three generals as evidence that souls may work independent from the body.

46Eustratius credits A Lost Life of St.

47Nicholas as his source.

48Nearly all the sources Eustratius references date from the late 4th century to early 5th century, indicating the life of St.

49Nicholas to which he refers was probably written during this time period, shortly after Nicholas's death.

50The earliest complete account of Nicholas's life that has survived to the present is A Life of St.

51Nicholas, written in the early 9th century by Michael the Archimandrite, 814 to 842, nearly 500 years after Nicholas's probable death.

52Despite its extremely late date, Michael the Archimandrite's life of St.

53Nicholas is believed to heavily rely on older written sources and oral traditions.

54The identity and reliability of these sources, however, remains uncertain.

55Catholic historian D.

56L.

57Can and medievalist Charles W.

58Jones both consider Michael the Archimandrite's life the only account of St.

59Nicholas that is likely to contain any historical truth.

60Jonah Lendering, a Dutch historian of classical antiquity, notes that Michael the Archimandrite's life does not contain a conversion narrative, which was unusual for saints' lives of the period when it was written.

61He therefore argues that it is possible Michael the Archimandrite may have been relying on a source written before conversion narratives became popular, which would be a positive indication of that source's reliability.

62He notes that many of the stories recounted by Michael the Archimandrite closely resemble stories told about the 1st century AD Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyena in The Life of Apollonius of Tyena, an 8-volume biography of him written in the early 3rd century by the Greek writer Philostratus.

63Christian storytellers were known to adapt older pagan legends and attribute them to Christian saints.

64As Apollonius' hometown of Tyena was not far from Myra, Lendering contends that many popular stories about Apollonius may have become attached to St.

65Nicholas.

66Life and legends, family and background.

67Accounts of St.

68Nicholas' life agree on the essence of his story, but modern historians disagree regarding how much of this story is actually rooted in historical fact.

69Traditionally, Nicholas was born in the city of Patera, Licia, E.T.

70Pamphylia, a port on the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor in the Roman Empire, to a wealthy family of Greek Christians.

71According to some accounts, his parents were named Epiphanius, Pi Iota Phi Nu Iota Omicron, Epiphanios, and Johanna, Omega Nu Nu Alpha, Iowanna.

72But, according to others, they were named Theophanes, Theta Epsilon Omicron Phi Nu Aida, Theophanes, and Nana, Nu Nu Nu Alpha, Nana.

73In some accounts, Nicholas' uncle was the bishop of the city of Myra also in Licia.

74Recognizing his nephew's calling, Nicholas' uncle ordained him as a priest.

75Generosity and travels.

76After his parents died from an epidemic, Nicholas is said to have distributed their wealth to the poor.

77In his most famous exploit, which is first attested in Michael the Archimandrite's life of St.

78Nicholas, Nicholas heard of a devout man who had once been wealthy but had lost all of his money due to the plotting and envy of Satan.

79The man could not afford proper dowries for his three daughters.

80This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment, be forced to become prostitutes.

81Hearing of the girl's plight, Nicholas decided to help them, but, being too modest to help the family in public, or to save them the humiliation of accepting charity.

82He went to the house under the cover of night and threw a purse filled with gold coins through the window opening into the house.

83The father immediately arranged a marriage for his first daughter, and after her wedding, Nicholas threw a second bag of gold through the same window late at night.

84According to Michael the Archimandrite's account, after the second daughter was married, the father stayed awake for at least two nights and caught St.

85Nicholas in the same act of charity toward the third daughter.

86The father fell on his knees, thanking him, and Nicholas ordered him not to tell anyone about the gifts.

87The scene of Nicholas's secret gift-giving is one of the most popular scenes in Christian devotional art, appearing in icons and frescoes from across Europe.

88Although depictions vary depending on time and place, Nicholas is often shown wearing a cowl while the daughters are typically shown in bed, dressed in their nightclothes.

89Many renderings contain a cypress tree or a cross-shaped cupola.

90The historicity of this incident is disputed.

91Adam J.

92English argues for a historical kernel to the legend, noting the story's early attestation as well as the fact that no similar stories were told about any other Christian saints.

93Jonah Lendering, who also argues for the story's authenticity, notes that a similar story is told in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyena, in which Apollonius gives money to an impoverished father but posits that Michael the Archimandrite's account is markedly different.

94Philostratus does not mention the fate of the daughters and, in his story, Apollonius's generosity is purely motivated out of sympathy for the father.

95In Michael the Archimandrite's account, however, St.

96Nicholas is instead expressly stated to be motivated by a desire to save the daughters from being sold into prostitution.

97He argues that this desire to help women is most characteristic of 4th century Christianity, due to the prominent role women played in the early Christian movement, rather than Greco-Roman paganism or the Christianity of Michael the Archimandrite's time in the 9th century, by which point the position of women had drastically declined.

98Nicholas is also said to have visited the Holy Land.

99The ship he was on was nearly destroyed by a terrible storm but he rebuked the waves, causing the storm to subside.

100Thus, Nicholas became venerated as the patron saint of sailors and travelers.

101While in Palestine, Nicholas is said to have lived in a crypt near Bethlehem, where the nativity of Jesus is believed to have taken place.

102Over the crypt where Nicholas is believed to have lived now stands the Church of St.

103Nicholas in Beit Jela, a Christian town of which Nicholas is the patron saint.

104Bishop of Myra After visiting the Holy Land, Nicholas returned to Myra.

105The Bishop of Myra, who had succeeded Nicholas's uncle, had recently died and the priests in the city had decided that the first priest to enter the church that morning would be made bishop.

106Nicholas went to the church to pray and was therefore proclaimed the new bishop.

107He is said to have been imprisoned and tortured during the great persecution under the Emperor Diocletian, ruled 284 to 305, but was released under the orders of the Emperor Constantine the Great, ruled 306 to 337.

108This story sounds plausible, but is not attested in the earliest sources and is therefore unlikely to be historical.

109One of the earliest attested stories of St.

110Nicholas is one in which he saves three innocent men from execution.

111According to Michael the Archimandrite, three innocent men were condemned to death by the governor Eustathius.

112As they were about to be executed, Nicholas appeared, pushed the executioner's sword to the ground, released them from their chains, and angrily chastised a juror who had accepted a bribe.

113According to Jonah Lendering, this story directly parallels an earlier story in Philostratus's life of Apollonius of Tyena, in which Apollonius prevents the execution of a man falsely condemned of banditry.

114Michael the Archimandrite also tells another story in which the consul Oblabius accepted a bribe to put three famous generals to death, in spite of their actual innocence.

115St.

116Nicholas appeared to Constantine and Oblabius in dreams, informing Constantine of the truth and frightening Oblabius into releasing the generals, for fear of hell.

117Later versions of the story are more elaborate, interweaving the two stories together.

118According to one version, Emperor Constantine sent three of his most trusted generals, named Ursos, Nepotianos, and Herpillion, to put down a rebellion in Phrygia.

119However, a storm forced them to take refuge in Myra.

120Unbeknownst to the generals who were in the harbor, their soldiers further inland were fighting with local merchants and engaging in looting and destruction.

121Nicholas confronted the generals for allowing their soldiers to misbehave and the generals brought an end to the looting.

122Immediately after the soldiers had returned to their ships, Nicholas heard word of the three innocent men about to be executed and the three generals aided him in stopping the execution.

123Eustathius attempted to flee on his horse but Nicholas stopped his horse and chastised him for his corruption.

124Eustathius, under the threat of being reported directly to the Emperor, repented of his corrupt ways.

125Afterward, the generals succeeded in ending the rebellion and were promoted by Constantine to even higher status.

126The generals' enemies, however, slandered them to the consul Oblabius, telling him that they had not really put down the revolt, but instead encouraged their own soldiers to join it.

127The generals' enemies also bribed Oblabius and he had the three generals imprisoned.

128Nicholas then made his dream appearances and the three generals were set free.

129Council of Nicaea In 325, Nicholas is said to have attended the First Council of Nicaea, where he is said to have been a staunch opponent of Arianism and a devoted supporter of Trinitarianism, and one of the bishops who signed the Nicene Creed.

130Nicholas' attendance at the Council of Nicaea is attested early by Theodore the Lecter's list of attendees, which records him as the 151st attendee.

131However, he is conspicuously never mentioned by Athanasius of Alexandria, the foremost defender of Trinitarianism at the Council, who knew all the notable bishops of the period, nor is he mentioned by the historian Eusebius, who was also present at the Council.

132Adam C.

133English notes that lists of the attendees at Nicaea vary considerably, with shorter lists only including roughly 200 names, but longer lists including around 300.

134St.

135Nicholas' name only appears on the longer lists, not the shorter ones.

136Nicholas' name appears on a total of three early lists, one of which, Theodore the Lecter, is generally considered to be the most accurate.

137According to Jonah Lendering, there are two main possibilities.

138Nicholas did not attend the Council of Nicaea, but someone at an early date was baffled that his name was not listed and so added him to the list.

139Many scholars tend to favor this explanation.

140Nicholas did attend the Council of Nicaea, but, at an early date, someone decided to remove his name from the list, apparently deciding that it was better if no one remembered he had been there.

141A later legend, first attested in the 14th century, over 1,000 years after Nicholas' death, holds that, during the Council of Nicaea, Nicholas lost his temper and slapped a certain Arian across the face.

142On account of this, Constantine revoked Nicholas' mitre and pallium.

143Stephen D.

144Great Honest concludes that, because of the story's late attestation, it has no historical value.

145Jonah Lendering, however, defends the veracity and historicity of the incident, arguing that, as it was embarrassing and reflects poorly on Nicholas' reputation, it is inexplicable why later hagiographers would have invented it.

146Later versions of the legend embellish it, making the heretic Arius himself and having Nicholas punch him rather than merely slapping him with his open hand.

147In these versions of the story, Nicholas is also imprisoned, but Christ and the Virgin Mary appear to him in his cell.

148He tells them he is imprisoned for loving you and they free him from his chains and restore his vestments.

149The scene of Nicholas slapping Arius is celebrated in Eastern Orthodox icons and episodes of Saint Nicholas at Nicaea are shown in a series of paintings from the 1660s in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari.

150Other reputed miracles.

151One story tells how during a terrible famine, a malicious butcher lured three little children into his house, where he killed them, placing their remains in a barrel to cure, planning to sell them off as ham.

152Nicholas, visiting the region to care for the hungry, saw through the butcher's lies and resurrected the pickled children by making the sign of the cross.

153Jonah Lendering opines that the story is without any historical value.

154Adam C.

155English notes that the story of the resurrection of the pickled children is a late medieval addition to the legendary biography of Saint Nicholas, and that it is not found in any of his earliest lives.

156Although this story seems bizarre and horrifying to modern audiences, it was tremendously popular throughout the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, and widely beloved by ordinary folk.

157It is depicted in stained glass windows, wood panel paintings, tapestries, and frescoes.

158Eventually, the scene became so widely reproduced that, rather than showing the whole scene, artists began to merely depict Saint Nicholas with three naked children and a wooden barrel at his feet.

159According to English, eventually, people who had forgotten or never learned the story began misinterpreting representations of it.

160That Saint Nicholas was shown with children led people to conclude he was the patron saint of children.

161Meanwhile, the fact that he was shown with a barrel led people to conclude that he was the patron saint of brewers.

162According to another story, during a great famine that Myra experienced in 311-312, a ship was in the port at anchor, loaded with wheat for the emperor in Constantinople.

163Nicholas invited the sailors to unload a part of the wheat to help in the time of need.

164The sailors at first disliked the request, because the wheat had to be weighed accurately and delivered to the emperor.

165Only when Nicholas promised them that they would not suffer any loss for their consideration did the sailors agree.

166When they arrived later in the capital, they made a surprising find.

167The weight of the load had not changed.

168Although the wheat removed in Myra was enough for two full years and could even be used for sewing.

169Relics.

170Jemile.

171It has long been traditionally assumed that Saint Nicholas was originally buried in his hometown of Myra, where his relics are later known to have been kept.

172But some recent archaeological evidence indicates that Saint Nicholas may have originally been entombed in a rock-cut church located at the highest point on the small Turkish island of Jemile, only 20 miles away from his birthplace of Patera.

173Nicholas's name is painted on part of the ruined building.

174In antiquity, the island was known as Saint Nicholas Island and today it is known in Turkish as Jemilar Adisi, meaning Island of Boats, in reference to Saint Nicholas's traditional role as the patron saint of seafarers.

175The church was built in the 4th century, around the time of Nicholas's death, and is typical of saints' shrines from that time period.

176Nicholas was the only major saint associated with that part of Turkey.

177The church where historians believe he was originally entombed is at the western end of the great processional way.

178Myra.

179In the mid-7th century, Jemile was vulnerable to attack by Arab fleets, so Nicholas's remains appear to have been moved from the island to the city of Myra, where Nicholas had served as bishop for most of his life.

180Myra is located roughly 40 kilometers east of Jemile, and its location further inland made it safer from seafaring Arab forces.

181It is said that, in Myra, the relics of Saint Nicholas each year exuded a clear watery liquid which smelled like rose water, called manna, or myrrh, which was believed by the faithful to possess miraculous powers.

182As it was widely known that all Nicholas's relics were at Myra in their sealed sarcophagus, it was rare during this period for forgers of relics to claim to possess those belonging to Saint Nicholas.

183A solemn bronze statue of the saint by Russian sculptor Gregory Pototsky was donated by the Russian government in 2000, and was given a prominent place in the square fronting the medieval church of Saint Nicholas.

184In 2005, Mayor Suleyman Topku had the statue replaced by a red-suited plastic Santa Claus statue, because he wanted an image more recognizable to foreign visitors.

185Protests from the Russian government against this were successful, and the bronze statue was returned, albeit without its original high pedestal, to a corner nearer the church.

186On December 28, 2009, the Turkish government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of Saint Nicholas's skeletal remains to Turkey from the Italian government.

187Turkish authorities asserted that Nicholas himself desired to be buried at his episcopal town, and that his remains were illegally removed from his homeland.

188In 2017, an archaeological survey at ST Nicholas Church, Demra was reported to have found a temple below the modern church, with excavation work to be done that will allow researchers to determine whether it still holds Nicholas's body.

189Bari.

190After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Byzantine Empire temporarily lost control over most of Asia Minor to the invading Seljuk Turks, and so Greek Christians of Myra became subjects of the Turks.

191At the same time the Catholic Church in the West had declared, in 1054 AD, that the Greek Church, the official Church of the Byzantine Empire, was in schism.

192Because of the many wars in the region, some Christians were concerned that access to the tomb might become difficult.

193Taking advantage of the confusion and the loss by the Greek Christian community of Myra of its Byzantine imperial protection, in the spring of 1087, Italian sailors from Bari, in Apulia seized part of the remains of the saint from his burial church in Myra, over the objections of the Greek Orthodox monks in the church.

194Adam C.

195English describes the removal of the relics from Myra as essentially a holy robbery and notes the thieves were not only afraid of being caught or chased after by the locals, but also the power of ST Nicholas himself.

196Returning to Bari, they brought the remains with them and cared for them.

197The remains arrived on May 9, 1087.

198Two years later, Pope Urban II inaugurated a new church, the Basilica di San Nicola, to St Nicholas in Bari.

199The Pope himself personally placed Nicholas's relics into the tomb beneath the altar of the new church.

200The removal of St Nicholas's relics from Myra and their arrival in Bari is reliably recorded by multiple chroniclers, including Ord Eric Vitali's and May 9th continue to be celebrated every year by Western Christians as the day of Nicholas's translation.

201Eastern Orthodox Christians and the Turks have both long regarded the unauthorized removal of the relics from Myra as a blatant theft, but the people of Bari have instead maintained that it was a rescue mission to save the bones from the Turkish invaders.

202A legend, shown on the ceiling of the Basilica di San Nicola, holds that Nicholas once visited Bari and predicted that his bones would one day rest there.

203Prior to the translation of Nicholas's relics to Bari, his following had been known in Western Europe, but it had not been extremely popular.

204In autumn of 1096, Norman and Frankish soldiers mustered in Bari in preparation for the First Crusade.

205Although the crusaders generally favored warrior saints, which St Nicholas was not, the presence of his relics in Bari made him materially accessible.

206Nicholas's associations with aiding travelers and seafarers also made him a popular choice for veneration.

207Nicholas's veneration by crusaders helped promote his following throughout Western Europe.

208After the relics were brought to Bari, they continued to produce myrrh, much to the joy of their new owners.

209Vials of myrrh from his relics have been taken all over the world for centuries, and can still be obtained from his church in Bari.

210Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of St Nicholas every year on December 6th, the saint's feast day, by the clergy of the basilica.

211The myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus which is located in the basilica vault and could be obtained in the shop nearby.

212The liquid gradually seeps out of the tomb, but it is unclear whether it originates from the body within the tomb or from the marble itself.

213Since the town of Bari is a harbor and the tomb is below sea level, there have been several natural explanations proposed for the manna fluid, including the transfer of seawater to the tomb by capillary action.

214In 1966, a vault in the crypt underneath the basilica di San Nicola was dedicated as an orthodox chapel with an iconostasis in commemoration of the recent lifting of the anathemas the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches had issued against each other during the Great Schism in 1054.

215In May 2017, following talks between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a portion of the relics of S.T., Nicholas and Bari were sent on loan to Moscow.

216The relic was on display for veneration at Christ the Savior Cathedral before being taken to St.

217Petersburg in mid-June prior to returning to Bari.

218More than a million people lined up in Moscow for a momentary glimpse of the gilded ark holding one of the saint's ribs, Venice.

219The sailors from Bari took only the main bones of Nicholas's skeleton, leaving all the minor fragments in the grave.

220The city of Venice had interest in obtaining the remaining fragments of his skeleton.

221In 1044, they dedicated the San Nicolo al Lido monastery basilica to him on the north end of the Lido di Venezia.

222According to a single chronicle written by an anonymous monk at this monastery, in 1100, a fleet of Venetian ships accompanied by Bishop Henri sailed past Myra on their way to Palestine for the First Crusade.

223Bishop Henri insisted for the fleet to turn back and set anchor in Myra.

224The Venetians took the remaining bones of St.

225Nicholas, as well as those of several other bishops of Myra, from the church there, which was only guarded by four Orthodox monks, and brought them to Venice, where they deposited them in the San Nicolo al Lido.

226This tradition was lent credence in two scientific investigations of the relics in Bari and Venice, which confirmed that the relics in the two cities are anatomically compatible and may belong to the same person.

227It is said that someone dies every time the bones of St.

228Nicholas in Venice are disturbed.

229The last time the bones were examined was in July 1992.

230Other locations.

231Because of Nicholas's skeleton's long confinement in Myra, after it was brought to Bari, the demand for pieces of it rose.

232Small bones quickly began to disperse across Western Europe.

233The sailors who had transported the bones gave one tooth and two fragments chipped from Nicholas's sarcophagus to the Norman knight William Pantulf.

234Pantulf took these relics to his hometown of Noron in Normandy, where they were placed in the local church of S.T.

235Peter in June 1092.

236In 1096, the Duke of Apulia gave several bones of St.

237Nicholas to the Count of Flanders, which he then enshrined in the Abbey of Watten.

238According to legend, in 1101, St.

239Nicholas appeared in a vision to a French clerk visiting the shrine at Bari and told him to take one of his bones with him to his hometown of Porte, near Nancy.

240The clerk took a finger bone back with him to Porte, where a chapel was built to St.

241Nicholas.

242Porte became an important center of devotion in the following of Nicholas and, in the 15th century, a church known as the Basilique St.

243Nicholas was built there dedicated to him.

244The town itself is now known as St.

245Nicholas, Delaware Porte in honor of Nicholas.

246The clergy at Bari strategically gave away samples of Nicholas's bones to promote the following and enhance its prestige.

247Many of these bones were initially kept in Constantinople, but, after the sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, these fragments were scattered across Western Europe.

248A hand claimed to belong to St.

249Nicholas was kept in the San Nicola in Carcer in Rome.

250This church, whose name means St.

251Nicholas in chains, was built on the site of a former municipal prison.

252Stories quickly developed about Nicholas himself having been held in that prison.

253Mothers would come to the church to pray to St.

254Nicholas for their jailed sons to be released and repentant criminals would place votive offerings in the church.

255As a result of this, Nicholas became the patron saint of prisoners and those falsely accused of crimes.

256An index finger claimed to belong to St.

257Nicholas was kept in a chapel along the Austrian Way in Rome.

258Another finger was held in Ventimiglia in Liguria.

259Today, many churches in Europe, Russia, and the United States claim to possess small relics, such as a tooth or a finger bone.

260An Irish tradition states that the relics of St.

261Nicholas are also reputed to have been stolen from Myra by local Norman crusading knights in the 12th century and buried near Thomastown, County Kilkenny, where a stone slab marks the site locally believed to be his grave.

262According to the Irish antiquarian John Hunt, the tomb probably actually belongs to a local priest from Jerpointe Abbey.

263Russian Orthodox Church announced on September 22, 2024 that Holy Merber's Cathedral in Baku received a part of Nicholas' relic as a gift.

264Scientific Analysis Whereas the devotional importance of relics and the economics associated with pilgrimages caused the remains of most saints to be divided up and spread over numerous churches in several countries, St.

265Nicholas is unusual in that most of his bones have been preserved in one spot, his grave crypt in Bari.

266Even with the allegedly continuing miracle of the manna, the Archdiocese of Bari has allowed for one scientific survey of the bones.

267In the late 1950s, while the crypt was undergoing much-needed restoration, the bones were removed from it for the first time since their interment in 1089.

268A special pontifical commission permitted Luigi Martino, a professor of human anatomy at the University of Bari, to examine the bones under the commission's supervision.

269Martino took thousands of measurements, detailed scientific drawings, photographs, and x-rays.

270These examinations revealed the saint to have died at over 70 years of age and to have been of average height and slender-to-average build.

271He also suffered from severe chronic arthritis in his spine and pelvis.

272In 2004, at the University of Manchester, researchers Caroline Wilkinson and Fraco Introna reconstructed the saint's face based on Martino's examination.

273The review of the data revealed that the historical St.

274Nicholas was 5 feet 6 inches, 1.68 meters, in height and had a broken nose, which had partially healed, revealing that the injury had been suffered anti-mortem.

275The broken nose appeared to conform with hagiographical reports that St.

276Nicholas had been beaten and tortured during the Diocletianic persecution.

277The facial reconstruction was produced by Caroline Wilkinson at the University of Manchester and was shown on a BBC2 TV program, The Real Face of Santa.

278In 2014, the face lab at Liverpool John Moores University produced an updated reconstruction of St.

279Nicholas's face.

280In 2017, two researchers from Oxford University, Professor Tom Hyam and Dr.

281Georges Kazan, radiocarbon dated a fragment of a pelvis claimed to belong to St.

282Nicholas.

283The fragment originally came from a church in Lyon, France, and, at the time of testing, was in the possession of Father Dennis O'Neill, a priest from St.

284Martha of Bethany Church in Illinois.

285The results of the radiocarbon dating confirmed that the pelvis dates to the 4th century AD, around the same time that St.

286Nicholas would have died, and is not a medieval forgery.

287The bone was one of the oldest the Oxford team had ever examined.

288According to Professor Hyam, most of the relics the team has examined turn out to be too recent to have actually belonged to the saint to whom they are attributed, but he states this bone fragment, in contrast, suggests that we could possibly be looking at remains from St.

289Nicholas himself.

290Kazan believes the pelvis fragment may come from the same individual as the skeleton divided between the churches in Bari and Venice, since the bone they tested comes from the left pubis, and the only pelvis bone in the collection at Bari is the left ilium.

291In the absence of DNA testing, however, it is not yet possible to know for certain whether the pelvis is from the same man.

292Veneration and celebrations.

293Among Greeks and Italians he is a favorite of sailors, fishermen, ships and sailing.

294As a result, and over time, he has become the patron saint of several cities which maintain harbors.

295In centuries of Greek folklore, Nicholas was seen as the lord of the sea, often described by modern Greek scholars as a kind of Christianized version of Poseidon.

296In modern Greece, he is still easily among the most recognizable saints and December 6th finds many cities celebrating their patron saint.

297He is also the patron saint of all of Greece and particularly of the Hellenic Navy.

298In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St.

299Nicholas's memory is celebrated on almost every Thursday of the year, together with the apostles, with special hymns to him which are found in the liturgical book known as the Octoechos.

300Soon after the transfer of St.

301Nicholas's relics from Myra to Bari, an East Slavic version of his life and an account of the transfer of his relics were written by a contemporary to this event.

302Devotional akathists and canons have been composed in his honor and are frequently chanted by the faithful as they ask for his intercession.

303He is mentioned in the Liturgy of Preparation during the Divine Liturgy, Eastern Orthodox Eucharist, and during the All-Night Vigil.

304Many Orthodox churches will have his icon, even if they are not named after him.

305In Oriental Orthodoxy, the Coptic Church observes the departure of St.

306Nicholas on Ten Kayak, or Ten Ta in Ethiopia, which corresponds to the Julian calendars December 6th and Gregorian calendars December 19th.

307Nicholas had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, a practice celebrated on his feast day, December 6th.

308For those who still observe the Julian calendar, the celebration currently takes place 13 days later than it happens in the Gregorian calendar and revised Julian calendar.

309In Serbia, the most common slava, annual ceremony and veneration of family's patron saint, is St.

310Nicholas Day celebrated on December 19th.

311In Monaco, the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate was built from 1874 on the site of St.

312Nicholas's Church, founded in 1252.

313A children's mass is still held on December 6th in the Cathedral.

314In late medieval England, on St.

315Nicholas Day parishes held Christmastide boy bishop celebrations.

316As part of this celebration, youths performed the functions of priests and bishops, and exercised rule over their elders.

317Today, St.

318Nicholas is still celebrated as a great gift-giver in several Western European and Central European countries.

319In medieval times, Christian nuns in Belgium and France began to deposit baskets of food and clothes anonymously at the doorsteps of the needy, which gave rise to the practice of gift giving on St.

320Nicholas Day.

321According to another source, on December 6th, every sailor or ex-sailor of the Low Countries, which at that time was virtually all of the male population, would descend to the harbor towns to participate in a church celebration for their patron saint.

322On the way back, they would stop at one of the various Nicholas fairs to buy some hard-to-come-by goods, gifts for their loved ones, and invariably some little presents for their children.

323While the real gifts would only be presented at Christmas, the little presents for the children were given right away, courtesy of St.

324Nicholas.

325This and his miracle of him resurrecting the three butchered children made St.

326Nicholas a patron saint of children and later students as well.

327The custom of giving gifts on St.

328Nicholas Day is popular in various parts of Christendom, with a popular tradition including children placing their shoes in the foyer for St.

329Nicholas to deliver presents therein.

330Santa Claus evolved from Dutch traditions regarding St.

331Nicholas, Sinterklaas.

332When the Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam, they brought the legend and traditions of Sinterklaas with them.

333Howard G.

334Hageman of New Brunswick Theological Seminary maintains that the tradition of celebrating Sinterklaas in New York existed in the early settlements of the Hudson Valley, although by the early 19th century had fallen by the way.

335St.

336Nicholas Park, located at the intersection of St.

337Nicholas Avenue and 127th Street, in an area originally settled by Dutch farmers, is named for St.

338Nicholas of Myra.

339Nicholas is honored in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Churches, as well as in Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on December 6th.

340Eastern Orthodox feast days for St.

341Nicholas of Myra in Lycia.

342May 9th.

343Translation of the relics of St.

344Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra to Bari, in 1087.

345May 10th.

346Passage of the relics, sojourn, in 1087 of St.

347Nicholas the Wonderworker through the island of Zakynthos, while on their way to Bari.

348May 20th.

349Arrival of the relics in Bari.

350July 29th.

351Nativity of St.

352Nicholas the Wonderworker.

353Moveable holiday on the Sunday between the 16th and the 22nd of August.

354Synaxis of all Saints of Lafcados.

355September 22nd.

356Synaxis of all Saints of Tula.

357Commemoration of the protection of Tula from the invasion of the Crimean Khan Devletjiri in 1552.

358December 6th.

359Commemoration of his death.

360Iconography.

361St.

362Nicholas is a popular subject portrayed on Eastern Orthodox icons, particularly Russian and Serbian ones.

363He is depicted as an Orthodox bishop, wearing the Omephorian and holding a gospel book.

364Sometimes he is depicted wearing the Eastern Orthodox mitre, sometimes he is bareheaded.

365Iconographically, Nicholas is depicted as an elderly man with a short, full, white, fluffy beard and balding head.

366In commemoration of the miracle attributed to him by tradition at the Council of Nicaea, he is sometimes depicted with Christ over his left shoulder holding out a gospel book to him and the Theotokos over his right shoulder holding the Omephorian.

367Because of his patronage of mariners, occasionally St.

368Nicholas will be shown standing in a boat or rescuing drowning sailors.

369Medieval chants and polyphony, image on the cover of the Book of Hours of Duke of Barrie, 1410.

370In depictions of St.

371Nicholas from Barrie, he is usually shown as dark-skinned, probably to emphasize his foreign origin.

372The emphasis on his foreignness may have been intended to enhance Barrie's reputation by displaying that it had attracted the patronage of a saint from a far-off country.

373In Roman Catholic iconography, St.

374Nicholas is depicted as a bishop, wearing the insignia of this dignity.

375A bishop's vestments, a mitre and a crozier.

376The episode with the three dowries is commemorated by showing him holding in his hand either three purses, three coins or three balls of gold.

377Depending on whether he is depicted as patron saint of children or sailors, his images will be completed by a background showing ships, children or three figures climbing out of a wooden barrel, the three slaughtered children he resurrected.

378In a strange twist, the three gold balls referring to the dowry affair are sometimes metaphorically interpreted as being oranges or other fruits.

379As in the low countries in medieval times, oranges most frequently came from Spain.

380This led to the belief that the saint lives in Spain and comes to visit every winter bringing them oranges, other wintry fruits and tales of magical creatures.

381Music.

382In 1948, Benjamin Britton completed a cantata, St.

383Nicholas on a text by Eric Crozier which covers the saint's legendary life in a dramatic sequence of events.

384A tenor soloist appears as St.

385Nicholas with a mixed choir, boys singers, strings, piano duet, organ and percussion.

386This was the English Wikipedia article about St.

387Nicholas as of December 6th, 2024 narrated by AI Generated Voice via the open source software Sony Translate.