The one thing we truly know about St. Nicholas is that he was the bishop of Myra, a city that existed during the fourth century in present-day Turkey. So many stories have grown up around him that by the middle ages he had become one of the most popular saints. In England alone there were more than four hundred churches in his honor! Nicholas is the patron of seafarers because he was said to have safely seen a ship he was sailing in to shore when he took the tiller in the midst of a great storm. He is the patron of prisoners because legend has it that he appeared to the Emperor Constantine on behalf of three unjustly condemned men. And he is the patron of children because of the story in which he threw small bags of coins through the window of a poor man's house so that he had dowries for his daughters. The giving of small gifts on his feast stems from the Dutch and German custom brought to this country by early settlers of New Amsterdam (New York) who had transformed the sainted bishop into a kind of Nordic magician whom we know today as Santa Claus.

Say “St Nicholas” quickly 5 times to hear how Santa Claus came to be!