Information about Saint Nicholas


Part of the Saint Nicholas Page honoring Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.

[St. Nicholas]

This page features links to many sources of information about Saint Nicholas. This page deals more with the real person of Nicholas rather than the derivative legendary Santa Claus.

Found here are:

A very condensed version of the life of Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas is is most famous for the gifts of money he made to a suddenly impoverished family, to allow the daughters to be married rather than to be given over to prostitution. On three separate nights, he secretly left money at the house of the family. He was discovered on the third night by the father, who was sworn to secrecy.

Nicholas was born in Patara in Lycia (now an abandoned site in Asia Minor), the only child of well-to-do Christian parents Theophanes and Nona in the middle of the Third Century A.D. He was orphaned at an early age. His uncle was Bishop Nicholas of Patara, who, recognizing Nicholas's true dedication to Christ, made him in turn a reader, a priest, and a teacher of the local flock.

Upon the death of the archbishop of nearby Myra, the council that was to pick the new leader were shown by God that Nicholas was to be the new archbishop, and so he became Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. He used his inheritance and his considerable influence to help those in need. His kindness endeared him to the people, though he was imprisoned for a time for his profession of Christianity, which was still illegal in the Roman Empire.

The title "Wonderworker" was bestowed on Nicholas because of the numerous miracles that he performed by the power of God; some while he was still alive, and some after his passage into the presence of God. Among these, he saved mariners from a storm; prevented the execution of three innocent men; restored to life a young boy tragically murdered; and helped preserve Myra from famine by miraculously appearing to the captain of a ship laden with grain and bidding him to come to Myra.

Saint Nicholas is the patron saint (better, "protector") of children, mariners, pawnbrokers (go figure), and the countries of Greece and Russia, to name just a few of those who have turned to this saint of God for assistance. He departed this life on December 6, c. 330 A.D.

Orthodox Christian sites

Other church and church-related sites

More-recent encounters with Saint Nicholas

Other Saint Nicholas sites and links

Orthodox Catechism

Orthodox teaching about Saint Nicholas.

From the encyclopaediae

What is a "Wonderworker"?

A wonderworker is one who performs miracles, or wonders. The Orthodox Church recognizes many wonderworkers; those who by the grace of God have been granted the power to perform miracles, whether in the flesh, or through their intercessions on our behalf. Here are but a few of them:


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Last modified February 29, 2016 Righteous John Cassian the Confessor

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