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NICHOLAS, ST

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 649 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NICHOLAS, ST , See also:bishop of See also:Myra, in See also:Lycia, a See also:saint honoured by the Greeks and the Latins on the 6th of See also:December. His cult is as celebrated as his See also:history is obscure. All the accounts that have come down to us are of a purely legendary See also:character, and it is impossible to find any single incident confirmed historic-ally. The See also:main facts of his See also:life are usually given as follows. He was bishop of Myra in the See also:time of the See also:emperor See also:Diocletian, was persecuted, tortured for the faith, and kept in See also:prison until the more tolerant reign of See also:Constantine, and was See also:present at the See also:council of See also:Nicaea. It should be observed that this last circumstance is ignored by all the historians, and that St See also:Athanasius, who knew all the notable bishops of the See also:period, never mentions Nicholas, bishop of Myra. The See also:oldest known See also:monument of the cult of St Nicholas seems to be the See also:church of SS See also:Priscus and Nicholas built at See also:Constantinople by the emperor Justinian (see See also:Procopius, De aedif. i. 6). In the See also:West, the name of St Nicholas appears in the 9th See also:century martyrologies, and churches dedicated to him are to be found at the beginning of the 11th century. It is more especially, however, from the time of the removal of his See also:body to See also:Bari, in See also:Apulia, that his cult became popular. The inhabitants of Bari organized an expedition, seized his remains by means of a ruse, and transported them to Bari, where they were received in See also:triumph on the 9th of May ro87, and where the See also:foundations were laid of a new See also:basilica in his See also:honour. This was the origin of a famous and still popular See also:pilgrimage.

There are nearly 400 churches in See also:

England dedicated to St Nicholas. He is the See also:patron saint of See also:Russia; the See also:special See also:protector of See also:children, scholars, merchants and sailors; and is invoked by travellers against robbers. In See also:art St Nicholas is represented with various attributes, being most commonly depicted with three children See also:standing in a tub by his See also:side. Of the various interpretations of this, none is absolutely certain. One explanation has been sought in the See also:legend of St Nicholas miraculously restoring to life three See also:rich youths, who had been murdered, cut up and concealed in a salting tub by a thievish innkeeper or See also:butcher, in whose See also:house they had taken lodging. A legend of his surreptitious bestowal of dowries upon the three daughters of an impoverished See also:citizen, who, unable to procure See also:fit marriages for them, was on the point of giving them up to a life of shame, is said to have originated the old See also:custom of giving presents in See also:secret on the See also:Eve of St Nicholas, subsequently transferred to See also:Christmas See also:Day. Hence the association of Christmas with " See also:Santa Claus," an See also:American corruption of the Dutch See also:form " See also:San Nicolaas," the custom being brought to See also:America by the See also:early Dutch colonists. (For the ceremony of the.boybishop elected on St Nicholas's Day see Boy-BISHOP.) See N. C. Falconius, Sancti See also:Nicolai acta primigenia (See also:Naples, 1751) ; Bibliotheca hagiographica Graeca (See also:Brussels, 1895), p. 96; Bibl. hagiogr. See also:Latina (Brussels, 1899), n.

61(34-6221; F. Nitti di Vito, Le Perganiene di S. Nicola di Bari (Bari, 1901); See also:

Charles Cahier, Caracteristiques See also:des See also:saints (See also:Paris, 1867), p. 354; Frances See also:Arnold-See also:Forster, Studies in Church Dedications (See also:London, 1899), i. 495-501 and See also:Ili. 21.

End of Article: NICHOLAS, ST

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