W

E ARE SO busy with the presents brought by SantaKlaus that we never take the trouble to inquire who he really is. Yet he is a very interesting personality. Let us find out about him before he returns.

St. Nicholas is one of the most popular among the saints of the Roman Catholic Church, which commemorates him on the sixth day of December, the possible date of his death. He lived in the fourth century, as bishop of Myra, a seaport in Lycia.

Very early after his birth, those who took care of him could see that he was to

be a holy man. "The first day that he was washed and bained-says the Golden Legend of him-he addressed him right up in the bason, and he would not take the breast nor the pap, but once on the Wednesday and once on the Friday, and in his young age he eschewed the plays and japes of other young children."

His parents, who were very rich and lived in the city of Patras, entrusted the boy for his education to a maternal uncle,

the bishop of Myra, who found him a most remarkable pupil, both for his intelligence and for his obedience.

It is told that, shortly after his education had been completed, he suffered for his faith and was thrown into prison under Diocletian; and that he comforted those other Christians who were persecuted with him; and also that he thanked God to be allowed to suffer for His cause. Later, when after the death of his uncle he had been himself elected bishop of Myra, he attended the famous Council of Nicea (325.) There, in the heat of some discussion, he is said to have struck in the face some one who had not spoken respectfully enough of the Mother of Christ. His colleagues reprimanded him severely for this lack of self-control, and even sent him to jail. But the Virgin Mary miraculously freed him, and in consequence, he was received again, with great honors, in the holy assembly.

Many stories tell of his great kindness. He spent, of course, the large fortune inherited from his parents for the benefit of the poor of his see.

One of the most deserving actions of his life was to save the country of Myra from a great famine. The legend now tells the story as follows: "It was so on a time that all the province of S. Nicolas suffered great famine, in such wise that victual failed. And then this holy man heard say that certain ships laden with wheat were arrived in the haven. And anon he went thither and prayed the mariners that they would succor the perished at least with an hundred muyes of wheat of every ship. And they said: Father, we dare not, for it is meted and measured, and we must give reckoning thereof in the garners of the Emperor in Alexandria. And the holy man said to them: Do this that I have said to you, and I promise in the truth of God, that it shall not be lessed or minished when ye shall come to the garners. And when they had delivered so much out of every ship they came to Alexandria and delivered the measure that they had received. And then they re

counted the miracle to the ministers of the Emperor, and worshipped and praised strongly God and his servant Nicolas. Then this holy man distributed the wheat to every man after that he had need, in such wise that it sufficed for two years not only for to sell, but also to sow.'

Ön several occasions he is said to have saved miraculously sailors from great perils.

How the people or tradition-singled out in him this virtue of extreme kindness, even to animals, is shown by the fact that in several countries his calendar day (6th of December) is commemorated by giving a general and complete holiday to all the beasts of burden.

He died the death of the holy. The Lord sent his angels to him; whereby he knew that he should depart; and, inclining his head, he began to sing the psalm In te, Domine, speravi (Lord, I have placed my hope with thee) unto in manus tuas; and so saying: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit, he rendered up his soul and died (343?)

He was buried, it is said, in a tomb of marble, and "a fountain of oil sprang out from the head unto his feet . . . which is most available to the health of sicknesses of many men."

Later, when the Turks had taken pos

In Russia, St. Nicholas has become by and by, and has remained up to our days the great national saint, being venerated there about in the same manner as St. Patrick is in Ireland, or St. James in Spain, or St. Anthony in Portugal, or St. Martin in France. He is so generally worshiped by the people of all classes and all professions that he is simply called "The Helper" (Nikolai ugondniku.) But his popularity at first did not spread much over the borders of the Greek Catholic Church; his cult was imported to Western Europe only at the time of the Crusades, i. e., about at the time when the worship of the Virgin Mary took a hold in France; and from there it spread in all the neighbouring countries.

And strange to say, but probably because they were both particularly kindhearted saints, and chiefly worshiped by the lower and oppressed classes, the two came to be mixed in a most amusing manner; miracles wrought by the one were attributed to the other, and those of the other to the one. For example, St. Nicholas was the patron-saint, and still is in all countries (including Switzerland) of the sailors and of the fishermen; but many stories of storms appeased by the supernatural intervention of St. Nicholas were later referred to Mary, after an intermediate stage when the names of both were used. The Holy Virgin is now considered as much as a special protector in case of storm on sea, as is St. Nicholas; more so, in fact, in occidental Europe, where she is addressed in that capacity as "Stella Maris." But, in exchange-and this is very odd-the good old saint who all his life avoided women like poison, has become the patron-saint of maidens, which of course belonged to Mary by right of nature. This was brought about by the great popularity which one of the legends connected with St. Nicholas enjoyed during the middle ages. It is related thus in the Golden Legend: "And when his father and mother were departed out of this life, he began to think how he might distribute his riches, and not to the