Saint nicholas biography wikipedia

Their father did not have enough money to pay their dowries and thought of selling them into servitude. Three times, Saint Nicholas secretly went to their house at night and put a bag of money inside. The man used the money so that one of his daughters could marry. On the third visit, the man saw Saint Nicholas and thanked him for his kindness.

He also reportedly saved three men who were falsely imprisoned and sentenced to death. Several sources state Saint Nicholas is believed to have died on December 6, Over the years, stories of his miracles and work for the poor spread to other parts of the world. He became known as the protector of children and sailors and was associated with gift-giving.

He was a popular saint in Europe until the time of the Reformation in the s, a religious movement that led to the creation of Protestantism, which turned away from the practice of honoring saints. Saint Nicholas, however, remained an important figure in Holland. The Dutch continued to celebrate the feast day of Saint Nicholas, December 6.

Images [ change change source ]. Tryptych in Perugia , about the deeds of St. About , by Fra Angelico. Tryptych in Bari. Gentile da Fabriano , about Sinter Claes in de Dam Amsterdam. A modern metal icon of St. Nicholas by the Bulgarian artist Georgi 'Chapa' Chapkanov, depicting the patron saint of fishermen holding a fish. Gilbert House, Stanley, Falkland Islands.

Related pages [ change change source ]. References [ change change source ]. Nicholas Center. As Saint Nicholas is said to protect children and virgins, on 6 December there is a ritual called the Rito delle nubili : unmarried women wishing to find a husband can attend to an early-morning Mass, in which they have to turn around a column seven times.

A similar tradition is currently observed in Sassari , where during the day of Saint Nicholas, patron of the city, gifts are given to young women who need help to get married. Depending on the cultural background, in some families this celebration is more important than Christmas. The parish church, dedicated to the saint, was built between and The ruins of a former parish church are still visible and have recently undergone restoration.

The collection of festivities in honor of Saint Nicholas are called Nicolinas , and they occur from 29 November to 7 December every year. These celebration are exclusive to this city, but bring people from all over the country to watch these centuries-old festivities, not seen anywhere else in the world. Since the feast of Saint Nicholas always falls in the fasting period preceding the Christmas , the feast is celebrated according to the Eastern Orthodox Church fasting rules "Post".

Fasting refers in this context to the eating of a restricted diet no animal products or dairy products etc. Nicholas of Bari is located there. In the 17th century, Dutch Protestants who settled in New York brought the Sinterklaas tradition with them. Still practiced in some areas today, children place freshly polished shoes in front of doors, under windows, or at the foot of their beds before heading to bed.

On the morning of 6 December, they find their shoes filled with gifts and sugary treats. Some of the traditions and rituals of Christmas, such as leaving out a stocking to be filled, are similar to the traditions of Saint Nicholas Day. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Saint nicholas biography wikipedia

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Feast day of Nicholas of Myra. A depiction of Saint Nicholas with his sack standing next to a Nativity Scene. Saint Nicholas [ edit ]. Main article: Saint Nicholas. Traditions by continent [ edit ]. Europe [ edit ].

Balkans [ edit ]. Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg [ edit ]. Main article: Sinterklaas. Eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe [ edit ]. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

Ukraine [ edit ]. France [ edit ]. Western Central Europe [ edit ]. Italy [ edit ]. Malta [ edit ]. Portugal [ edit ]. Main article: Nicolinas. Orthodox Slavic countries [ edit ]. Spain [ edit ]. Middle East [ edit ]. Lebanon [ edit ]. North America [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Nicholas Center. Archived from the original on 14 December ISBN Archived from the original on December 23, Retrieved History of the Peloponnesian War.

At the Perseus Project digital library. Names that, today, we would normally associate with boys were occasionally mainly in the North of Scotland given to girls and vice versa, for example, Nicholas. For an example of such use for females, see this description of a case of an executed woman, Nicholas Cockburn: Bennett, Rachel E. December Capital Punishment and the Criminal Corpse in Scotland, —