Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. He is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students. His legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus through Sinterklaas.
About Saint Nicholas in brief
Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. He is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe. His legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus through Sinterklaas. Very little is known about the historical Saint Nicholas. The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and contain many legendary elaborations. His relics in Bari are said to exude a miraculous watery substance known as “manna” or “myrrh”, which some members of the faithful regard as possessing supernatural powers. His remains were moved to a sarcophagus in that church. In 1087, while the Greek Christian inhabitants of the region were subjugated by the newly arrived Muslim Seljuk Turks, a group of merchants from Bari removed the major bones of Nicholas’s skeleton from his church without authorization and brought them to their hometown. Fewer than 200 years after Nicholas’s death, the St. Nicholas Church was built in Myra under the orders of Theodosius II over the site of the church where he had served as bishop. The Life of Saint Nicholas of Sion, written around 250 years after Saint Nicholas’s death, mentions visiting Nicholas’s tomb to pay homage to him.
According to Jeremy Sion’s biography, Nicholas’s name also took the name of another saint, Nicholas of Sions, who apparently took his name to honor him. The name Nicholas also occurs in a list of attendees at the First Council of Nicaea recorded by the historian in the Ecclesiastice Epitome, written between 510 and 515. The Byzantine historian Procopius also mentions that the Emperor Justinian I renovated churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas and Saint Priscus, which may have originally been built as early as c 490. He was later cast into prison during the persecution of Diocletian, but was released after the accession of Constantine. The remains of Nicholas were later removed by Venetian sailors and taken to Venice during the First Crusade. His bones are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Nicola, where they are now believed to contain a substance called “Myrrh,” which is believed to be a form of healing power. The relics of Nicholas have been kept in the church since the 12th century, but his remains have been moved to Bari since the 14th century. He died in 4th century and is buried in the Church of San Nicola in Baroque style in the Italian city of Barri, near the city of Bologna. He had a son, Nicholas, who was born in the Greek seaport of Patara, Lycia in Asia Minor.
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This page is based on the article Saint Nicholas published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 10, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
