Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, the Wonderworker, is famed as a great saint pleasing unto God. He was born in the city of Patara in the region of Lycia (on the south coast of the Asia Minor peninsula), and was the only son of pious parents Theophanes and Nonna, who had vowed to dedicate him to God.
As the fruit of the prayer of his childless parents, the infant Nicholas from the very day of his birth revealed to people the light of his future glory as a great wonderworker. St Nicholas from his infancy began a life of fasting, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he would not accept milk from his mother until after his parents had finished their evening prayers.
From his childhood Nicholas thrived on the study of Divine Scripture; by day he would not leave church, and by night he prayed and read books, making himself a worthy dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Bishop Nicholas of Patara rejoiced at the spiritual success and deep piety of his nephew. He ordained him a reader, and then elevated Nicholas to the priesthood, making him his assistant and entrusting him to instruct the flock.
Constantly at work and vivacious, in unceasing prayer, the priest Nicholas displayed great kind-heartedness towards the flock and distributed all his inheritance to the poor. In bestowing charity, St Nicholas always strove to do this secretly and to conceal his good deeds. Once, having learned about the abject poverty of a certain formerly rich inhabitant of Patara, St Nicholas saved him from great sin. The man had three grown daughters, and in desperation, he planned to sell their bodies so they would have money for food. St Nicholas, grieving over the perishing sinner, secretly visited him at nights and threw three sacks of gold through the window, thereby saving the family from falling into sin and spiritual destruction.
When the Bishop of Patara decided to go on pilgrimage to the holy places at Jerusalem, he entrusted the guidance of his flock to St Nicholas, who fulfilled this obedience carefully and with love. Later Nicholas also made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Along the way the saint predicted a storm would arise and threaten the ship. At the entreaty of the despairing pilgrims, he calmed the waves of the sea by his prayers. Through his prayer a certain sailor of the ship, who had fallen from the mast and was mortally injured, was also restored to health.
Going round the holy places connected with the earthly service of the Son of God, St Nicholas decided to withdraw into the desert, but he was stopped by a divine voice urging him to return to his native country. He returned to Lycia, and yearning for a life of quietude, the saint entered into the brotherhood of a monastery named Holy Sion. But the Lord again indicated another path for him.
Upon the death of Archbishop John, Nicholas was chosen as Bishop of Myra in Lycia. After his consecration as archbishop, St Nicholas remained a great ascetic, appearing to his flock as an image of meekness, kindness and love for people. This was particularly precious for the Lycian Church during the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Diocletian (284-305). Bishop Nicholas, locked up in prison together with other Christians, sustained them and exhorted them to endure the fetters, torture and suffering. The Lord preserved him unharmed. Upon the accession of St Constantine emperor, St Nicholas was restored to his flock, which joyfully received their guide and intercessor.
Despite his great meekness of spirit and purity of heart, St Nicholas was a zealous and ardent warrior of the Church of Christ. Fighting evil spirits, the saint made the rounds of the pagan temples and shrines in the city of Myra and its surroundings, shattering the idols and turning the temples to dust.
In the year 325 St Nicholas was a participant in the First Ecumenical Council. This Council proclaimed the Nicene Symbol of Faith, and he stood up against the heretic Arius with the likes of Sts Sylvester the Bishop of Rome, Alexander of Alexandria, Spyridon of Tremithous and other 318 Fathers of the Council.
St Nicholas, fired with zeal for the Lord, assailed the heretic Arius with his words, and also struck him upon the face. For this reason, he was deprived of the emblems of his episcopal rank and placed under guard. But several of the holy Fathers had the same vision, seeing the Lord Himself and the Mother of God returning to him the Gospel and omophorion. The Fathers of the Council agreed that the audacity of the saint was pleasing to God, and restored the saint to the office of bishop.
Even during his life the saint worked many miracles. One of the greatest was the deliverance from death of three men unjustly condemned by the Governor, who had been bribed. He worked many other miracles, and struggled many long years at his labor. Through the prayers of the saint, the city of Myra was rescued from a terrible famine. More than once, the saint saved those drowning in the sea, and provided release from captivity and imprisonment.
Having reached old age, St Nicholas peacefully fell asleep in the Lord († 345-351). His venerable relics were preserved incorrupt in the local cathedral church and flowed with curative myrrh, from which many received healing. In the year 1087, his relics were transferred to the Italian city of Bari, where they rest even now.
The name of the great saint of God is famed in every corner of the earth, in many lands and among many peoples. In Russia there are a multitude of cathedrals, monasteries and churches consecrated in his name. There is, perhaps, not a single city without a church dedicated to him. The first Russian Christian prince Askold († 882) was baptized in 866 by Patriarch Photius with the name Nicholas. Over the grave of Askold, St Olga, Equal-to-the-Apostles, built the first temple of St Nicholas in the Russian Church at Kiev.
Many of the churches devoted to the saint were established at market squares by Russian merchants, sea-farers and those who traveled by land, venerating the wonderworker Nicholas as a protector of all those journeying on dry land and sea. They sometimes received the name among the people of “Nicholas soaked.” Many village churches in Russia were dedicated to the wonderworker Nicholas, venerated by peasants as a merciful intercessor before the Lord for all the people in their work. And in the Russian land St Nicholas did not cease his intercession.
Many wonderworking icons of St Nicholas appeared in Russia and came also from other lands.