04 — The Great Acts of Charity
The deeds for which Nicholas is most loved: the secret dowry of gold by which he rescued three impoverished daughters from ruin — the gold through the window that is the root of the whole gift-giving tradition — and his rescue of three innocent men condemned to death together with his calming of the storm at sea, the deeds that made him the patron of the wrongly condemned and of sailors. These files pin each act to its earliest attestation, distinguishing the oldest stratum of the legend from the later elaborations.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Wonderworker; Great Hierarch)
If the historical core of Nicholas is thin, the moral core of his cult is unmistakable and remarkably stable across every layer of the tradition: he is the merciful giver and the rescuer of those in extremity. The two files here take the two great clusters of his charity. The first is the dowry for the three daughters — the most consequential single story in the entire Nicholas tradition, for it is the seed from which the modern gift-giving custom, and ultimately Santa Claus, would grow. The second is the Praxis de stratelatis, the rescue of three condemned generals, which is the oldest identifiable stratum of the legend, paired with the sea-miracles that gave him his maritime patronage. Each is reported as the tradition’s testimony, named and dated, in keeping with the discipline of the whole collection.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Three Daughters | The dowry of gold thrown secretly through the window to rescue three poor daughters from being sold into prostitution; its attestation in Michael the Archimandrite; its meaning as hidden almsgiving; and its role as the root of the gift-giving tradition. |
| Rescuer of the Condemned and Sailors | The Praxis de stratelatis — the rescue of three innocent officers from execution and the appearance to Constantine — the oldest stratum of the legend; and the sea-miracles, the calming of the storm, that made Nicholas the patron of sailors. |
See Also
- The Young Bishop — the almsgiving habit out of which these acts grow
- The Vita Tradition — the sources and their layering
- The Making of Santa Claus — where the gift-giving root leads
- Feast, Iconography, and Patronage — the patronages these deeds founded
References
- Anrich, Gustav. Hagios Nikolaos: Der heilige Nikolaos in der griechischen Kirche. 2 vols. Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1913–1917.
- Jones, Charles W. Saint Nicholas of Myra, Bari, and Manhattan: Biography of a Legend. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
- English, Adam C. The Saint Who Would Be Santa Claus: The True Life and Trials of Nicholas of Myra. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2012.