Now we have the one that we desired, and have found and accepted the one we sought. Under his rule and instruction we will not lack the hope that we will stand before God in the day of his appearing and revelation.
Nicholas was consecrated to the episcopacy during a tumultuous time in the life of the Church in Lycia. The persecutions under the emperor Diocletian effected that region deeply, and for a time, Bishop Nicholas was imprisoned with other Christians for refusing to bow down and worship the idols of the imperial cult. He was remembered later for the exhortations he delivered to his fellow prisoners, urging them to endure with joy all that the Lord lay before them, whether chains, bonds, torture or even death.
Bishop Nicholas' imprisonment came to an end with the ascension of Constantine to the throne in the early fourth century. He returned to his flock in Myra, which received him with joy, and resumed his episcopal work.
St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and Archbishop of Myra in Lycia
He was known as a great ascetic, as he had been since his childhood, and for his gentleness and love. But his kind-hearted spirit was also one of zeal, and with the new freedoms offered under the peace of Constantine following the 'Edict of Milan' in , he was known to travel through his city, visiting pagan temples and overthrowing their shrines and idols. In the year , a great council of bishops—the largest in the history of the Church—was held in the city of Nicaea under the patronage of Emperor Constantine, who had, since his miraculous vision of the cross at Milvian bridge, himself converted to Christianity.
This synod, which in later years would come to be known as the First Ecumenical Council commemorated on the seventh Sunday after Pascha , was attended by over three hundred bishops from throughout the Christian world, to establish various canons of order for the growing Church, affirm the faith, and combat heresy.
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In particular, the teachings of Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria, were addressed and condemned by the council, which formulated a statement of faith that, with later refinements at Constantinople in , became the Creed of the Church. St Nicholas was a participant at this council, and is particularly remembered for his zeal against Arius.
Having openly combatted him with words, Bishop Nicholas, in a fit of fervour some accounts indicate he was displeased with Arius' monopolisation of the meeting with his 'constant arguing' , went so far as to strike Arius on the face. Shocked by this behaviour, especially given that the canons forbid clergy from striking any one at all, yet uncertain of how to react to such actions by a hierarch they knew and respected, the fathers of the council determined to deprive Nicholas of his episcopal emblems traditionally his omophorion and the Gospel book , and placed him under guard.
However, a short time later, several of the assembled fathers reported having a common vision: St Nicholas' title 'wonderworker' comes from the multitude of reports of miracles that issued forth at his intercession, both during his life and after. The renown of his miraculous acts was widespread in his own lifetime. As he had secretly delivered gold, many years before, to the father of three destitute daughters, so he secretly delivered gold to an Italian merchent by some accounts, this gold was left miraculously by an apparition of the saint appearing to the merchant in Italy , convincing him to sail to Myra with a shipment of grain.
And so by his prayers and deeds, his city of Myra was rescued from a terrible famine. One miracle, particularly widely known, was Bishop Nicholas' conversion of the local governor, who had been bribed into unjustly condeming three men to death. The saint approached the executioner, who had already raised his sword to issue the death-blow, and swiftly removed it from his hands.
He then approached the governor and denounced his unjust action.
St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and Archbishop of Myra in Lycia - Orthodox Church in America
This latter, convicted by St Nicholas' words, repented and asked the saint's forgiveness. This episode is remembered as connected directly to another: St Nicholas appeared to Emperor Constantine in a dream and urged him to reverse this sentence, which the emperor did. Many times, the saint's prayers were said to have saved those drowning in the sea just a his prayers had calmed the sea on his own journey, as a young priest, to Jerusalem.
Prisoners unjustly condemned prayed to him and were delivered. The poor prayed to him and were provided for. And so Nicholas' reputation as thaumatourgos was established during his life.
It continues to this day. Living his life in ascetic labour and zealous ministry, St Nicholas fell asleep in the Lord at an old age d. A church was built in his honour by the residents of Myra, in which his relics were kept for many centuries. Alexei Cominos ascended the throne of the Byzantine Empire in , in which year Asia Minor suffered various attacks and threats of barbarian invasion. St Nicholas' relics at this time remained in his city of Myra.
However, a priest in the Italian city of Bari soon beheld a vision in which Nicholas appeared and informed him that he did not wish to remain in a city as barren as the defeated Myra. He instructed the priest to remove his body from the city. After informing the residents of Bari of his vision, three ships were sent to Myra to retrieve the saint's relics. On their arrival in the city in , the travellers from Bari found the Church of St Nicholas in Myra abandoned, save for the presence of four devoted monks.
These led the men to the coffin of the saint, which they had hid to keep it safe from invaders. On opening the coffin, the men found St Nicholas' relics flowing with myrrh which they collected in vials, before securing the coffin and placing it on one of the ships for the return voyage to Bari, accompanied by two of the Myran monks. Some time later, the ships arrived in Bari, and were met at the port by throngs of the local faithful.
A great festal Liturgy was held in in the Church of St John the Forerunner and Baptist, to which the saint's relics were taken in procession. Craftsmen had fashioned an ornate silver box, into which St Nicholas' head and hands were placed, while the remainder of his relics remained in their original coffin from Myra. Nicholas the Wonderworker , Oxford, England. Nicholas requested that his identity be kept secret. In this expanded tradition, the father is said to have proclaimed, after receiving St Nicholas' second offering of gold: Show me this earthly angel who preserves us from sinful perdition, so that I might know who has snatched us from the poverty which oppresses us from evil thoughts and intentions.
O Lord, by your mercy secretly done for me by the generous hand of your servant unknown to me, I can give my second daughter lawfully into marriage and with this escape the snares of the devil, who desired by a tainted gain, or even without it, to increase my great ruin. Return to the world, and there glorify my Name. By some, Nicholas was in fact censured and placed under guard, and this act was later reversed upon the vision of various fathers; by others, the vision pre-empted the censure, and Nicholas was not deprived of his episcopal emblems.
By yet another tradition, Arius complained of his maltreatment and thus Nicholas was confined, during which time the vision appeared to him, though the omophorion and Gospel book were not apparitions but real. In , an archaeological survey at St. Nicholas Church, Demre 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' body.
English describes the removal of the relics from Myra as "essentially a holy robbery" [74] and notes that the thieves were not only afraid of being caught or chased after by the locals, but also the power of Saint Nicholas himself. Prior to the translation of Nicholas's relics to Bari, his cult had been known in western Europe, but it had not been extremely popular.
After the relics were brought to Bari , they continued to produce "myrrh", much to the joy of their new owners. Vials of myrrh from his relics have been taken all over the world for centuries, and can still be obtained from his church in Bari. Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on 6 December the Saint's feast day by the clergy of the basilica. The myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus which is located in the basilica vault and could be obtained in the shop nearby.
The 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; since the town of Bari is a harbour, 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. In , 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 Nicholas in Bari were sent on loan to Moscow.
The relic was on display for veneration at Christ the Savior Cathedral before being taken to St. Petersburg in mid-June prior to returning to Bari. The sailors from Bari only took the main bones of Nicholas's skeleton, leaving all the minor fragments in the grave. Because of Nicholas's skeleton's long confinement in Myra, after it was brought to Bari, the demand for pieces of it rose. Peter in June The clergy at Bari strategically gave away samples of Nicholas's bones to promote the cult and enhance its prestige. An Irish tradition states that the relics of Saint Nicholas are also reputed to have been stolen from Myra by local Norman crusading knights in the twelfth century and buried near Thomastown , County Kilkenny , where a stone slab marks the site locally believed to be his grave.
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, Saint Nicholas is unusual in that most of his bones have been preserved in one spot: Even with the allegedly continuing miracle of the manna, the archdiocese of Bari has allowed for one scientific survey of the bones.
Life of St Nicholas the Wonderworker
In , at the University of Manchester , researchers Caroline Wilkinson and Fraco Introna reconstructed the saint's face based on Martino's examination. Among the Greeks and Italians he is a favorite of sailors, fishermen , ships and sailing. As such he has become over time the patron saint of several cities maintaining harbours.
In 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. In modern Greece, he is still easily among the most recognizable saints and 6 December finds many cities celebrating their patron saint. He is also the patron saint of all of Greece and particularly of the Hellenic Navy. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Nicholas' 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.
Soon after the transfer of Saint Nicholas' relics from Myra to Bari, a Russian version of his Life and an account of the transfer of his relics were written by a contemporary to this event. Many Orthodox churches will have his icon , even if they are not named after him. Nicholas 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 , 6 December.
For those who still observe the Julian calendar the celebration will currently take place thirteen days later than it happens in the Gregorian calendar and Revised Julian calendar. In late medieval England , on Saint Nicholas' Day parishes held Yuletide " boy bishop " celebrations. As part of this celebration, youths performed the functions of priests and bishops, and exercised rule over their elders.
Today, Saint Nicholas is still celebrated as a great gift-giver in several Western European and Central European countries. According to one source, in medieval times nuns used the night of 6 December to deposit baskets of food and clothes anonymously at the doorsteps of the needy. According to another source, on 6 December every sailor or ex-sailor of the Low Countries which at that time was virtually all of the male population would descend to the harbour towns to participate in a church celebration for their patron saint. On 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.
While the real gifts would only be presented at Christmas, the little presents for the children were given right away, courtesy of Saint Nicholas.
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This and his miracle of him resurrecting the three butchered children made Saint Nicholas a patron saint of children and later students as well. When the Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam , they brought the legend and traditions of Sinterklaas with them.
Hageman, 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 nineteenth century had fallen by the way. Nicholas Park , located at the intersection of St. Nicholas Avenue and th Street, in an area originally settled by Dutch farmers, is named for St. Saint Nicholas is a popular subject portrayed on countless Eastern Orthodox icons , particularly Russian and Serbian ones.
He is depicted as an Orthodox bishop, wearing the omophorion and holding a Gospel Book. Sometimes he is depicted wearing the Eastern Orthodox mitre , sometimes he is bareheaded. Iconographically, Nicholas is depicted as an elderly man with a short, full, white, fluffy beard and balding head. In commemoration of the miracle attributed to him by tradition at the Council of Nicea , 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 omophorion.
Because of his patronage of mariners, occasionally Saint Nicholas will be shown standing in a boat or rescuing drowning sailors; Medieval Chants and Polyphony, image on the cover of the Book of Hours of Duke of Berry, []. In depictions of Saint Nicholas from Bari, he is usually shown as dark-skinned , probably to emphasize his foreign origin. The episode with the three dowries is commemorated by showing him holding in his hand either three purses, three coins or three balls of gold.
Depending 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. In a strange twist, the three gold balls referring to the dowry affair are sometimes metaphorically interpreted as being oranges or other fruits. As in the Low Countries in medieval times oranges most frequently came from Spain, this 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.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 17 September This article is about the 4th-century saint. For other uses, see Saint Nicholas disambiguation. The date of their death rather than their birth is commemorated.
Wheeler and Jona Lendering both note that the legends of Saint Nicholas are filled with sets of three, which may be symbolic for Nicholas's vehement defense of the Holy Trinity. Retrieved 4 April Retrieved 7 December The book of general ignorance Noticeably stouter edition. A brief history of saints. Devotion to the saint in the Low countries became blended with Nordic folktales, transforming this early Greek Orthodox Bishop into that Christmas icon, Santa Claus.
The regions of Italy: Saint Nicholas Bishop of Myra replaced Sabino as the patron saint of the city… A Greek from what is now Turkey, he lived in the early fourth century.
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Italy before the Renaissance. For although he is the patron saint of Russia, and the model for a northern invention such as Santa Claus, Nicholas of Myra was a Greek. Scott; Ingram, Asher, Scott; Robert He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life to Christianity.
Saints and their symbols: Nicholas was born around AD in Patara on the coast of what is now western Turkey. Stories Behind Men of Faith. Nicholas was born in the Greek city of Patara around AD. The son of a businessman named Theophanes and his wife, Nonna, the child's earliest years were spent in Myra… As a port on the Mediterranean Sea, in the middle of the sea lanes that linked Egypt, Greece and Rome, Myra was a destination for traders, fishermen, and merchant sailors.
Nicholas was born around AD in Patara on the coast of what is now western Turkey; his parents were Epiphanius and Joanna. The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas. A companion to Wace. In Nuncius — 27 2, p. Retrieved 25 August Retrieved 23 May Archived from the original on 11 December Retrieved 12 December Retrieved 7 October Lives of the Saints.
A Closer Look at Christmas. Europe - Near East Center. Archived from the original on 9 December