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Probably the most popular of the Saints in the Christian world and sometimes known as Santa Claus. The patron saint of children, sailors, travelers and prisoners. He was born to a wealthy family at Patara in southwestern Turkey c. 300. Patara his birth place was a flourishing city especially in the Roman times. The remains of this city that are still visible there prove this fact. In his youth he traveled to Palestine and Egypt, later he became bishop of Myra, a town to the west of Antalya in Mediterranean Turkey. When he was bishop at Myra, his influence was already great all over Anatolia, and by the 6 C. a church was built and dedicated to him in Constantinople. He was also present at the First Council of Nicaeain 325, and he met such a strong opposition from Arius the heretic. One of the local stories told about him is, in the time of famine a butcher cut up the bodies of three children and put them in a barrel of salt, intending to sell them for food. The St. Nicholas was told by an angel in his dream about the incident, and hastened to the butcher's house and restored the children back to life. Another story says, a young girl with no money to buy her dowries was about to take up a prostitution life, St. Nicholas had thrown three bags of gold into their garden and enabled the girl to buy her dowries and get married. This story probably gave the way the custom of giving presents to children at Christmas time. Today, there is a nice church at Myrain which the Saint was buried in a sarcophagus and his tomb has survived the Arab raids, but in 1087, the remaining parts of his body was taken to Bari in Italy by the Italian merchants. When they broke the tomb, they found the bones of the Saint covered in Myrrh. His body and some other relics kept in the church of Myra were removed to the Cathedral in Bari, and the remaining parts are in Antalya Museum. |
