Saint Nicholas of Bari

Nicholas was born in Patara, in Lycia, and was bishop of Myra, in present-day Turkey, in the fourth century. He is one of the most venerated saints in the world, and his story has turned into something that goes far beyond his biography. The oldest and most important story is this one: a local man had fallen into poverty and was about to push his three daughters into prostitution, since he had no dowry to marry them off. Nicholas went three nights in a row to toss a bag of gold through the window, in secret, without being seen. Everything else grows out of that episode — the idea of a gift left at night, without the giver being recognized. In 1087 some sailors from Bari carried off his relics from Myra, which had fallen into Turkish hands, and brought them to Apulia. Since then he has been Saint Nicholas of Bari, and the basilica built for him is one of the few places in the world where Catholics and Orthodox pray in the same building. The rest went by way of Holland. There they called him Sinterklaas, and Dutch settlers brought that figure to New Amsterdam, which later became New York. Sinterklaas became Santa Claus, and in nineteenth-century America he took on the red suit, the sleigh and the reindeer. So: the old man who brings presents to children is a fourth-century bishop who threw gold through windows at night so no one could thank him. If your name is Nicholas or Nicolette, today is your name day.