Holiday of Saint Nicolae

Holiday of Saint Nicolae

Saint Nicolae is the spiritual patriarch in Holland, Russia, Greece, France and in a lot of cities from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Belgium. He is known as the protector of poor people, sailors, tradesmen, travellers, unmarried young women, brides and especially the protector of children.

Saint Nicolae was born in Middle East, near the city of Bethlehem. In is a certainty that he lived in the 4th century, he was Cardinal of Myra( now region of Turkey) and he was celebrated as a saint since 6th century.
No less than 21 miracles were attribuited to this saint and he became known in the whole world for his fait, compassion and love towards the needed people.
He was born in a wealthy family , but after the death of this both parents ( at that time he was still a child ) he inhereted the entire fortune, which he decided to use it in humanitarian purposes.

Across the centuries, a lot of legends and stories appeared about this saint.

One of them is the following one: there were three sisters, daughters of a poor nobleman, who were in position of never getting married because of their financial condition.

It says that when the older sister reached the proper age for marriage, Nicolae, who in the meantime became Cardinal, left, one night, on the nobleman’s doorstep a bag full with gold, helping this way the young woman to find her way in life.

The same story repeated in the case of the second daughter.

When the marriage time came for the third daughter, the nobleman decided to stay awake all night to see who is his benefactor. Bigger was his suprise when he saw the Cardinal climbed on the house’s roof, dropping a sack of gold throught the chimney.The sack landed in a sock hanged o the fire place to dry.The father of the girls was asked to keep the secret and since then , when someone received an unexpected present thanked for it to Saint Nicolae.
Since then, dates the custom of hanging socks near the fire place, in the night before Saint Nicolae’s holiday, hopping that next day the soks will be full of sweets.


In 10th century, Tsar Vladimir of Russia traveled to Constantinopole( today Istambul) and hearing about the miracles made by Saint Nicolae, decided to make him spiritual patriarch of Russia.

The holy remains of Saint Nicolae are in Bari, Italy, where a beautiful church was build for the belivers in their pilgrimage to Holy Ground. It says that , the holy remains of Saint Nicolae have sometime a sweet odour.

In Romania, Saint Nicolae is known after the name of Mos Nicolae ( in Romanian, mos means old man), he comes every year on the night of 5th December, with gifts for both children and grown-ups.

In this night, if you want to receive presents, you need to clean and polish your boots and put them at the door. Mos Nicolae will come late in the night, when all are sleeping and put small presents, for every member of the family, in the boots.

Romanian Traditions and superstitions


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