St. Nicholas
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- Franciscan Media – The Real St. Nicholas
- Orthodox Church in America – Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia
- Catholic Online – St. Nicholas
- Christianity.com – Who was Saint Nicholas? The Meaning of St. Nicholas Day
- McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia – Nicholas (St) of Myra
- St. Nicholas Center – Biography of Saint Nicholas
- Livius – Nicholas of Myra
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- Franciscan Media – The Real St. Nicholas
- Orthodox Church in America – Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia
- Catholic Online – St. Nicholas
- Christianity.com – Who was Saint Nicholas? The Meaning of St. Nicholas Day
- McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia – Nicholas (St) of Myra
- St. Nicholas Center – Biography of Saint Nicholas
- Livius – Nicholas of Myra
Also known as: Nicholas of Bari, Nicholas of Myra, Santa Claus
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Last Updated: Nov 3, 2023 • Article History
Table of Contents
St. Nicholas
Category: History & Society
also called: Nicholas of Bari or Nicholas of Myra . (Show more)
flourished: 4th century, Myra, Lycia, Asia Minor [near modern Demre, Turkey] . (Show more)
Significant Dates: Western feast day December 6; Eastern feast day December 19 . (Show more)
Flourished: c.301 – c.400 Myra . (Show more)
Top Questions
Who is Saint Nicholas?
Saint Nicholas is one of the most popular saints commemorated in the Eastern and Western churches, and he is now traditionally associated with the festival of Christmas. Nothing certain is known of his life, but he was probably bishop of Myra in the 4th century. He is also known as Nicholas of Myra or Nicholas of Bari.
What was Saint Nicholas known for?
Saint Nicholas was known for his generosity and kindness, which gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy. As a result of this reputation, devotion to Nicholas extended to all parts of Europe. He became the patron saint of multiple countries, of charitable fraternities and guilds, and of children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers.
Where was Saint Nicholas from?
According to tradition, Saint Nicholas was born in the ancient Lycian seaport city of Patara and, while still young, traveled to Palestine and Egypt. He became bishop of Myra soon after returning to Lycia.
How did Saint Nicholas inspire the creation of Santa Claus?
Dutch families took the tradition of celebrating the feast day of Saint Nicholas with them to New Amsterdam in the American colonies, beginning as early as the 17th century. They referred to him as Sinterklaas. That name became Santa Claus to the early United States’ English-speaking majority. The legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents to form the pop-cultural figure of Santa Claus.
Do the relics of Saint Nicholas really emit a holy substance?
The relics of Saint Nicholas have been reported to emit a sweet-smelling substance ever since they were transferred from Turkey during the 11th century to a tomb in Bari, Italy. The holy liquid has been known as the manna of Saint Nicholas for hundreds of years, and it has been bottled and sold to pilgrims as a purported cure-all salve. Learn more.
St. Nicholas, (flourished 4th century, Myra, Lycia, Asia Minor [near modern Demre, Turkey]; Western feast day December 6; Eastern feast day December 19), one of the most popular minor saints commemorated in the Eastern and Western churches and now traditionally associated with the festival of Christmas. In many countries children receive gifts on December 6, St. Nicholas Day. He is one of the patron saints of children and of sailors.
Nicholas’s existence is not attested by any historical document, so nothing certain is known of his life except that he was probably bishop of Myra in the 4th century. According to tradition, he was born in the ancient Lycian seaport city of Patara, and, when young, traveled to Palestine and Egypt. He became bishop of Myra soon after returning to Lycia. He was imprisoned and likely tortured during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletianbut was released under the rule of Constantine the Great. He may have attended the first Council of Nicaea (325), where he allegedly struck the heretic Arius in the face. He was buried in his church at Myra, and by the 6th century his shrine there had become well known. In 1087 Italian sailors or merchants stole his alleged remains from Myra and took them to Bari, Italy; this removal greatly increased the saint’s popularity in Europe, and Bari became one of the most crowded of all pilgrimage centres. Nicholas’s relics remain enshrined in the 11th-century basilica of San Nicola at Bari, though fragments have been acquired by churches around the world. In 2017 researchers dated one such relic fragment, a piece of hip bone, from a church in the United States and confirmed it to be from the 4th century.
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Nicholas’s reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy. He was reputed to have given marriage dowries of gold to three girls whom poverty would otherwise have forced into lives of prostitution and to have restored to life three children who had been chopped up by a butcher and put in a tub of brine. In the Middle Ages, devotion to Nicholas extended to all parts of Europe. He became the patron saint of Russia and Greece; of charitable fraternities and guilds; of children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers; and of such cities as Fribourg, in Switzerland, and Moscow. Thousands of European churches were dedicated to him—one, built by the Roman emperor Justinian I at Constantinople (now Istanbul), as early as the 6th century. Nicholas’s miracles were a favourite subject for medieval artists and liturgical plays, and his traditional feast day was the occasion for the ceremonies of the Boy Bishop, a widespread European custom in which a boy was elected bishop and reigned until Holy Innocents’ Day (December 28).
After the Reformation, devotion to Nicholas disappeared in all the Protestant countries of Europe except Holland, where his legend persisted as Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of the name St. Nicholas). Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century. Sinterklaas was adopted by the country’s English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus, and his legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents. The resulting image of Santa Claus in the United States crystallized in the 19th century, and he has ever since remained the patron of the gift-giving festival of Christmas.
Under various guises, St. Nicholas was transformed into a similar benevolent gift-giving figure in the Netherlands, Belgium, and other northern European countries. In the United Kingdom, Santa Claus is known as Father Christmas.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.
The Origins of Old Saint Nick
When I was very young, a figure representing Santa Claus held sway at the top of our Christmas tree. Fitting over the tree’s top like a cone, this Santa had a flowing white beard, but his countenance was more dignified than merry. Instead of a cheerful red suit, he wore a robe of pinkish brown with a pointed hood.
“That is not Santa Claus,” I announced to my mother one year, pointing to the top of our tree.
“That Santa was on my tree when I was a little girl and on Gran’s childhood tree before that,” she said. “It’s traditional. We love it.” So much for my rebellion.
More than 70 years have passed since I was a boy. And tradition still holds its own. The solemn Santa continues to reign in his honored spot atop Varner family Christmas trees.
Yet even as I respect it as a treasured family keepsake, I secretly harbor my old suspicions: Who did this robed figure think he was, passing himself off as Santa Claus? I did, that is, until one spring day while on a cruise to the Middle East.
Our ship docked in southern Turkey and I took the opportunity, guidebook in hand, to wander the ancient land. Strolling in the garden of a beautiful 11th-century Byzantine church, I stopped in surprise.
Before me was a life-size statue of a dignified man with a flowing beard, garbed in a hooded robe with a peaked top. Statues of a little boy and girl stood beside him.
He reminded me immediately of our Varner family Santa. But what was this statue? My guidebook enlightened me. I was in St. Nicholas Church and the statue before me was of one Saint Nicholas, who “became the patron saint of children to whom he brings Christmas presents.”
Back home in Manhattan, I did a bit of historical digging. I learned that Saint Nicholas was a fourth-century bishop of Myra, which is now in Turkey, and although few verifiable facts exist about his life, legends abound.
Saint Nicholas was said to have performed miracles (including riding out a terrible storm at sea in his hat), shown great courage in the face of religious persecution, and done good deeds.
Over the ensuing centuries he became one of the most admired of all saints, with churches named for him in Asia, Europe and eventually America.
Nicholas was the patron saint of Russia and the subject of many a medieval play; artists loved to depict him too. His popularity grew even more when in 1087 Italian traders brought what they claimed were his bones to Bari, in southern Italy, and the city became crowded with pilgrims.
Was it a myth that he gave gifts to children? I can only say that some legends become greater than their source—but are nonetheless founded on genuine acts of generosity and good will.
As the decades rolled on, it was inevitable that Nicholas should come to America. He arrived with the Dutch settlers who founded a city they called New Amsterdam. They called him “Sinter-Klass”—Santa Claus—and honored him on his feast day, December 6.
By now he was wearing a bishop’s robe and riding on a donkey, just as he had in the Netherlands, bearing gifts for well-behaved children. When the English took over in 1664 and renamed the city New York, they went back to calling him Saint Nicholas.
In 1809, Washington Irving published Knickerbocker’s History of New York, in which Santa was described as an old man in dark robes on a flying horse. In an 1821 poem called “The Children’s Friend” the horse was supplanted by a reindeer.
But the changes that appealed to me most were wrought by a professor at General Theological Seminary, Clement Moore, who in 1823 dashed off a Christmas poem for his children. A houseguest sent it to a newspaper and when printed it became an overnight sensation.
A Visit From St. Nicholas—“’Twas the night before Christmas … ”—portrayed the Saint Nick I envisioned and was drawn to. Round of belly and full of merriment, his “twinkling eyes” and “cheeks like roses” looked anything but somber.
His sleigh was pulled not by a single reindeer but by eight, who waited patiently chimney-side while the “jolly old elf” made his remarkable descent.
Moore had switched Santa’s appearance from December 6th to the night of the 24th, but it was clear the gift-bearing interloper was still Saint Nicholas. In the 1870s political cartoonist Thomas Nast illustrated his idea of Santa Claus for the pages of the popular magazine Harper’s Weekly —Santa, lolling on a snow-capped chimney smoking a long-stemmed pipe. Nast established Santa’s home at the North Pole and gave him elves to do his manufacturing. As the turn of the century approached, young Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun to ask if there really was a Santa Claus, and the editors answered with a resounding “yes” in an editorial that is still reprinted in Christmas Eve newspapers around the country.
I’ll always be fond of the Santa who is round and red-suited, full of fun and plenty of ho-ho-ho. But now I’m aware of a new dimension to that rollicking holiday figure. At last I feel friendly toward the monk-like Santa at the top of our family tree, and this Christmas I’ll look at the old codger with new and appreciative eyes. What as a child I mistook for dourness was really the saintly piety of his Christian origins showing through. We may have given Saint Nicholas a secular makeover, dressed him up in a bright red suit and transformed his simple kindness into roistering jollity. Yet the gifts he brings down the chimney to good children still echo God’s gift to us of his only son.
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