The Feast of St. Nicolas on The Sixth of December

Historically, not a lot is known about the saint. Usually, he is placed as Bishop of Myra in Turkey at the beginning of the fourth century, but his predecessor and uncle already went by the same name. It is therefore possible that the stories attached to the two of them have been amalgamated into one; and even more, there was a namesake in the sixth century who was Abbot of the cloister of Zion near Myra who later became Bishop of Pinara (which in turn is named as the birthplace of St. Nicolas). He is said to have attended the council of Nicaea (today Iznik), but there is no historical evidence for that.

Where historical facts are short, early historians were good at inventing an interesting life story. They attributed him with giving away an inherited fortune (historically better attributed to the Bishops Ambrose of Milan and Basil of Caesarea). He allegedly paid the dowry of three daughters of a poor Christian by throwing money through their window during the night (wherefore he is often represented with three golden balls). He stopped corn transports on their way to Constantinople and made them unload half their goods during a famine, but the ships arrived fully loaded again at their destination (wherefore he is often depicted with three loafs of bread).

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Legend has him saving three citizens from illegal execution, as well as three imperial guards from the same fate. He resurrected three scholars after they were butchered. All these figure threes give you an indication of how well founded these stories are. He went head to head with the Greek goddess Artemis (winning obviously) and he commonly saved vessels at sea from the trouble they got themselves into.

With such records, it is small wonder he is the patron saint of numerous countries, cities, and organisations. Russia, Croatia, and Serbia claim him for them, the merchant cities springing up during the late Middle Ages all grew around churches dedicated to him, and he is responsible for merchants and butchers, sailors, students and children. He is the patron saint of Fribourg in Switzerland, where the first Saturday in December is dedicated to him with a festival, a market, and a procession through the historical city centre.

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As usual, the Western and the Eastern churches disagree slightly on the correct date for the feast day, the West having it on the sixth of December, whereas the East has the 19th of December by using the Julian calendar. Martin Luther’s Protestants abolished the saints’ days, and St. Nicolas’ traditions were moved to Christmas in some regions and to New Year in others. An exception to all this is the port city of Bari in Italy which has the saints day on the 19th of May, the day the relics of the saint arrived at their city after they stole them in Myra in 1087.

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Saint Nicolas is always depicted in full Bishops dress, sometimes in white and gold, but mostly in red and white. His worship was promoted in the 10th century by Empress Theophanous, Princess of Byzantium and wife of Emperor Otto II of Germany. Later, St. Nicolas In his red garb became a world traveller, and on his way from Europe to the American continent he took up a cheap exchange offer and traded his ass for some flying reindeer. As with all cheap offers, one of the reindeer has a permanent technical defect.

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