Tonight is Saint Nicholas Eve! I’m sure you know that the legend of Santa Claus begins with this early Christian saint, but how much do you know about Saint Nicholas of Myra? To begin, here is a picture of him depicted in a 14th-century English book of hours (a devotional book used for praying through the day).

It turns out that very little is known about the man, but there’s a plethora of legends. He is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students. He is known for secret gift giving and is also called Nicholas the Wonderworker because of the many miracles he is said to have performed.

His dates are traditionally given as March 15, 270 to December 6, 343. He was born in a Greek seaport of Asia Minor (now Turkey) to wealthy parents. None of his writings (if he wrote any) are extant and he is not mentioned by any contemporary chroniclers. However, by the end of the 5th century at least two churches were dedicated to him. He is mentioned in a few texts from the 6th century. The first complete account of his life was written by Michael the Archimandrite (814–842).

Saint Nicholas may have attended the First Council of Nicaea and later legend has it that he was defrocked and imprisoned for slapping the heretic Arius, an event depicted in the detail of a late medieval Greek Orthodox fresco shown below.

These are some of the good deeds and miracles attributed to Saint Nicholas of Myra:

• Saving three girls from prostitution by secretly giving their father bags of gold coins to use as dowries
• Saving three innocent sailors from wrongful execution
• Chopping down a tree possessed by a demon
• Calming a storm at sea on his way to visit the Holy Land
• Resurrecting three children who had been murdered and pickled in brine
• Multiplying a shipload of wheat to feed people during a famine

After Saint Nicholas visited the Holy Land he returned to Myra in Asia Minor and became a bishop. He may have been imprisoned during the persecution under Emperor Diocletian and released under Constantine. Many details of his life are disputed by historians. December 6 is considered his death anniversary.

Jumping forward in time… Saint Nicholas is known as Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, where children put hay and carrots in their shoes for his horse and receive gifts if they’ve been good during the past year. Celebrating Sinterklaasfeest began during the Middle Ages and Sinterklaas later evolved into the figure of Santa Claus that we know in North America today.