Feast of St Nicholas

We do not have a lot of “hard facts” of regarding Saint Nicholas. This has not inhibited the Church honouring him in both the Eastern and Western traditions. We do know that Nicholas was a fourth-century bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor.

The best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters. Rather than see them forced into prostitution, Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man’s window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on the saint’s feast. In the English-speaking countries, Saint Nicholas became, by a twist of the tongue, Santa Claus—further expanding the example of generosity portrayed by this holy bishop. Many consider him to be the inspiration for Father Christmas.