Nicholas (4th century), bishop of Myra. Nicholas's life, although he was one of the most universally venerated saints in both East and West, is virtually unknown. His see of Myra is in Lycia, south-western Turkey and called Mugla. Attempts to make him one of the fathers at the Council of Nicea (325), who had previously been in prison during the persecution of Diocletian, have failed through lack of evidence. But there can be no doubt about the antiquity of his cult, which was clearly established in the East from the 6th century, increased by a fictitious biography by Methodius (d. 847), and became widely known in the West in the 10th century. But when Myra and its shrine were taken by the Moslems, the relics were translated to Bari (1087), where there were many Greek immigrants. Here a new church was built to house them and Pope Urban II, who held a council at Bari (which Anselm attended) in 1095, was present at the inauguration. From this time onwards Nicholas's cult became almost universal in the West.
His reputation as a thaumaturge was both cause and effect of his many patronages. Countries such as Russia, towns such as St. Nicholas at Wade (Kent), children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, pawnbrokers, apothecaries, and perfumiers all claimed him as their patron. Some of these patronages are linked with episodes in his legendary Acts. He was reputed to have given three bags of gold to three girls for their marriage dowries in order to save them from prostitution. It seems that this is the basis for the use of three gold balls as the pawnbroker's sign. The number three appears several times in his legend, as in the case of three boys whom he is said to have raised to life after they were murdered in a brine-tub by a butcher, and in his saving three unjustly condemned men from death and three sailors near the coast of Turkey. From his shrine at Bari there came a substance sometimes called ‘manna’ or else a fragrant ‘myrrh’ which explains his patronage of perfumiers; whatever it may have been, it attracted numerous pilgrims to his shrine.
In England about 400 churches were dedicated to Nicholas; in England also there survive two important iconographical cycles of his life, on the font at Winchester cathedral and on an ivory crozier-head at the Victoria and Albert Museum, both of the 12th century. The latter, a masterpiece of fine carving, includes several scenes, one of which is a lively depiction of the infant Nicholas refusing his mother's breast on Wednesdays and Fridays, in accordance with his Legend. Other examples include a fine late medieval window at North Moreton (Oxon.), entirely devoted to his life, and windows in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster, at Great Malvern (Hereford and Worcester), and Hillesden (Bucks.). Further afield the frescoes (8th century) at S. Maria Antiqua, Rome, mosaics at S. Sophia, Istanbul (10th century), at St. Mark's, Venice, and Monreale, Sicily (both 12th century) should be mentioned, together with stained-glass cycles of his life at Chartres, Le Mans, and Tours. Renaissance painters also depicted him: all in all, he was probably the most frequently represented saintly bishop for several centuries.
Perhaps the most popular result of his cult is the institution of Santa Claus. Based ultimately on Nicholas' patronage of children with its attendant custom in the Low Countries of giving them presents on his feast, it attained its present form in North America, where the Dutch Protestants of New Amsterdam united to it Nordic folkloric legends of a magician who both punished naughty children and rewarded good ones with presents.
The name Nicholas has been in use in England from Anglo-Saxon times and became very popular in the 12th century. It gave rise to numerous names such as Colin, Nicolson, Nixon, Nicola, Nicolette, and others. He was an extremely popular figure in medieval drama, a tradition continued by Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicholas. Prayers to him were composed by Anselm, Godric, and others. Feast: 6 December; translation, 9 May.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- N. C. Falconius, Sancti Nicolae Acta Primigenia (1751); F. Nitti di Vito, La leggenda della translazione di S. Nicola da Mira a Bari (1937); K. Meisen, Nikolauskult und Nikolausbrauch in Abendlande (1931); modern studies by J. Laroche (1893), E. Crozier (1949), A. D. de Groot (Eng. tr. 1965); B.T.A., iv. 503–6; Réau, ii. 976–88; K. Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church (1933); C. W. Jones, St. Nicholas of Myra, Bari, and Manhattan (1978). Bibl. SS., ix. 923–48
