Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas patron of children and sailors, of Greece, Sicily, and Russia, and of many other places and persons. Little is known of him, but he is traditionally identified as a 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. His relics were stolen from Myra in the Middle Ages and taken to Bari, Italy. St. Nicholas is the subject of many legends. He is credited with restoring to life three boys who had been chopped up and pickled in salt by a butcher. Another famous story concerns his giving three bags of gold to the daughters of a poor man and thus saving them from lives of prostitution. Later tradition transformed the bags into three gold balls, which became the symbol of pawnbrokers. In the Netherlands and elsewhere St. Nicholas's feast (Dec. 6) is a children's holiday, appropriate for gifts. The English in colonial New York adopted from the Dutch the now unrecognizable saint, calling him Santa Claus (a contraction of the Dutch Sint Nikolaas ). They moved his feast day to the English gift holiday, Christmas. The career and qualities attributed to Santa Claus are all recently acquired.

Bibliography: See biography by C. W. Jones (1978, repr. 1988).

Nicholas male forename, name of two saints.
St Nicholas of Myra a 4th-century Christian prelate, said to have been bishop of Myra in Lycia; his relics were translated to Bari in Italy in 1087.

Legends of the saint include the stories that he gave three bags of gold as dowries to three girls about to be sold into prostitution, and that he restored to life three boys who had been murdered and pickled in a brine tub; he also saved from death three men who had been unjustly condemned, and three sailors off the coast of Turkey. He is patron saint of children, sailors, Greece, and Russia; of pawnbrokers (from the connection made between the three golden balls of a pawnbroker's sign and the three bags of gold given as dowries); and of perfumiers (because a fragrant substance is said to have been emitted from his shrine at Bari). The cult of Santa Claus (a corruption of his name) comes from the Dutch custom of giving gifts to children on his feast day.

Three boys in a tub, three moneybags, and a ship, are all emblems of St Nicholas. His feast day is 6 December.
St Nicholas of Tolentino (1245–1305), an Augustinian friar, born in Ancona, and named for St Nicholas of Myra; he was renowned as a preacher, and for his care of the sick and destitute. His usual emblems are a basket of loaves of bread (traditionally given to the sick, or to women in labour) and a star, and his feast day is 10 September.