ST. NICHOLAS OF BARI
(† 342)
St. Nicholas, the patron Saint of Russia, was born toward the end of the third century. His uncle, the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him, and appointed him abbot of a monastery. When the archbishop passed away, St. Nicholas was elected to the vacant see.
Throughout his life, St. Nicholas retained the bright and guileless manners of his early years, and showed himself the special protector of the innocent and the wronged. He once heard that a person who had fallen into poverty intended to abandon his three daughters to a life of sin. Determined, if possible, to save their innocence, the Saint went out by night, and, taking with him a bag of gold, flung it into the window of the sleeping father and hurried off. The father, on awaking, deemed the gift a godsend, and with it dowered his eldest child. The Saint, overjoyed at his success, made like venture for the second daughter; but the third time as he stole away, the father, who was watching, overtook him and kissed his feet, saying: "Nicholas, why dost thou conceal thyself from me? Thou art my helper, and he who has delivered my soul and my daughters from hell."
St. Nicholas is usually represented by the side of a vessel, wherein a certain man concealed the bodies of three children he murdered, but who were restored to life by the Saint.
St. Nicholas passed away in 342. His relics were transferred in 1807 to Bari, Italy, and there, after fifteen centuries, "the manna of St. Nicholas" still flows from his bones and heals all kinds of sickness.