From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   December 6th - St. Nicholas of Myra (Bari) B (RM)   
   Died c. 350.   
      
    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   
   Palestine, which he did. On his voyages across the sea, he calmed the waves   
   (which is why he is patron of sailors and travelers).   
      
   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 travelers, pilgrims, and safe   
   journeys (because he reputedly traveled 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).   
      
   --------   
   More on St. Nicholas:   
   http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden133.htm   
   http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11063b.htm   
   http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38   
   http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/id680.htm   
   http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Feasts-and-Saints/December/Dec-   
   06.html#nicholas   
      
      
   Quote:   
   "When you perceive that God is chastening you, fly not to his   
   enemies...but to his friends, the martyrs, the saints, and those who   
   were pleasing to him, and who have great power in God."   
   -John Chrysostom: Orations 396 AD   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   19 And I will shew wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth   
      
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