Brief Life
The future saint was born in a province of the Roman Empire - in the Malaysian city of Patara. Despite the fact that his earthly path was connected with ancient Lycia, this did not stop the Russian people from calling him their “most Russian” saint.
St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
The life of the saint from his birth to the present day has been marked by the great Providence of God. He was born to elderly Christian parents in response to their fervent long-term prayer and vow to dedicate their future son to God. Given the Christian name Nikolai, he showed from the first days of his life that the main thing for him was serving God.
Thus, from the earliest editions of the life of the 8th century, it is known that the baby drank mother’s milk on fast days (Wednesdays and Fridays) only in the evenings, and during the Sacrament of baptism he stood alone in the font for three hours.
The Christian truths laid down by his parents from early childhood, plus natural talent and a pious life, bore fruit already in adolescence - the young man Nikolai devoted a lot of time to the study of the Holy Scriptures and participated in church services. It is not surprising that the uncle-bishop elevated young Nicholas to the priesthood early.
Useful materials
The most ancient Greek, Latin and Syrian hagiographies describe events from the saint’s biography, clearly revealing his fiery, kind soul. This is the salvation of the three daughters of a bankrupt resident of Patara from a sinful path. Thanks to the help of the saint, the family was saved from hunger, shame and debauchery. The taming of a terrible sea storm and the miraculous rescue and resurrection of a young sailor during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Rescue of three innocent Lycian citizens condemned to execution.
The Lord led Bishop Nicholas on an amazing path. By order of the fierce persecutor of Christians, the Roman Emperor Diocletian, the saint was imprisoned along with his flock. Surviving, he returned to his native Myra, where he was soon elected archbishop. In this rank of Archbishop of Myra of Lycia, he would have been one of the fathers participating in the First Ecumenical Council.
“The rule of faith and the image of meekness” - this is how St. Nicholas is glorified in the divine service. For these qualities, the Lord gave his saint great grace - to respond to people’s prayers and come to their aid. Just as during his lifetime the Miracle Worker of Myra helped the suffering, so today he helps everyone who turns to him.
This is interesting: Who is St. Nicholas and why is he called the Wonderworker
Memorial Days
December 6/19 is the day of the blessed death of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Popularly known as Nikola Zimny.
May 9/22 is the day of the transfer of the holy relics of St. Nicholas from Myra in Lycia to Bargrad. Popularly known as Nikola Veshny (or Spring).
August 11 - Christmas
saint It was Nikola's summer holiday.
Lens
I'm leaving the church after the evening service. I’m in a hurry to get home, because I’m from work and straight to church. Two old women walk quietly ahead of me. They walk and hold on to each other. Slippery. I tried to overtake them, and at this time one grandmother said to another: “Well, this is just a miracle.” I slowed down and listened. Grandma tells it. “I got ready from home, got dressed already. I grabbed it, but there were no keys on the nightstand. Well, I think they fell. No, not on the floor. I searched and searched. I can not find. I've already undressed. I searched in my pockets and in my bag. Nowhere. At least go away, but leave the door hollow. I went up to the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and let’s ask him to help me find the keys. I bowed. I get up. I looked up, and my keys were hanging on a nail by the window. I never hung it there, I always left it on the nightstand in the hallway.” I overtook the old women and almost ran again. At home, my mother is sick, and my son has to come home from work. I came home and went straight to the kitchen to prepare dinner. The son came. While he was undressing, she told him what she heard on the way from the temple. My son went into the room, and I went back to the kitchen. About ten minutes later I hear a cry: “Mom!” I run into the room. My son is confused. His eyesight is poor, but he wears contacts rather than glasses. And then one lens somehow fell out. A lens is a small, completely transparent petal. We have a carpet on the floor and a fluffy blanket on the sofa. Will you find it here? And with my eyes there is nothing to even try to look for. And he can't find it. Suddenly my son fell to his knees in front of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and began to ask him. And I didn’t bother to interfere, I went back to the kitchen. I think it is impossible to find this lens. We need to buy new ones. Yes, and to work tomorrow. What will he do? Suddenly my son comes into my kitchen and shows me his finger: “Look, mom. I prayed, began to get up, leaned my hand on the sofa, and it was glued to my finger.”
Pavlova Z.S.
Modern miracles of the saint
Healing oil from the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
In the life of Oleg Kovalkov, many miracles occurred through prayers to St. Nicholas, but the most significant was associated with the healing of his friend from cancer. A young woman was diagnosed with a malignant tumor. The cancer cells progressed very quickly. Doctors insisted on urgent surgery. Tests rechecked several times in other clinics only confirmed the previous diagnosis - “progressive cancer”.
Then Oleg gave the unfortunate woman the myrrh brought from Bari from the relics of the Wonderworker, advising her to smear a cross on her forehead and sore spot. After a couple of weeks, the woman decided to drink the holy myrrh drop by drop. About a month later, she passed the tests necessary for the operation. Their results amazed doctors - cancer cells not only stopped growing, their number decreased significantly. Today, Oleg Kovalkov’s friend is healthy: there are no cancer cells in her body.
Interesting fact
According to the Church Charter, all the apostles of Christ are glorified during services on Thursdays, and among the recipients of their ministry, the Church especially remembers the saint and wonderworker Nicholas of Myra.
Getting rid of addictions and bad habits
Tamara D. lives in Antalya in the city of Demre (the modern name of the city of Mira). The woman suffered from beer alcoholism for many years, which she was very embarrassed about. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop drinking on her own. I was afraid to tell even my closest friends. So it turned out to be a vicious circle: in the morning a severe hangover, tears from yesterday's drinking and shame for actions committed while drunk, and in the evening - beer again.
According to Tamara, only prayer saved her. The unfortunate woman prayed every day, as best she could, as her heart told her. Today she understands that the Lord was always there, saving her from death many times. One day, in some amazing way, a young woman, together with a group of pilgrims, ended up in the Church of St. Nicholas. She cried long and bitterly at the tomb of the holy saint, asking with all her heart only one thing: “ If God pleases, I just want to be happy!”
" Nicholas the Wonderworker, of course, heard and helped. Today Tamara is a happy wife and mother of her son Elijah. She doesn't drink or smoke.
Resurrection from the Dead
Archpriest Andrei Tkachev told this story in one of his sermons. The events took place in Kyiv during the years of German occupation. In one family, the mother dies. Three young children remain. Father is at the front. There are no relatives, and there is nowhere to wait for help. The children put their mother on the table, but they didn’t know what to do next... The kids only knew that they read the Psalter for the dead, but at home they found only an akathist to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The three of them stood at the feet of their deceased mother and began to read:
“ Rejoice, receptacle of great virtues ... Rejoice, worthy interlocutor ; Rejoice, kind teacher of men
"
What joy is there?! Only grief and fear... But they don’t stop and read further: “ Rejoice, release of the innocent from bonds;
Rejoice, and revive the dead... ”
After these words, their already dead mother, as if waking up, opened her eyes and sat up. This is how merciful the saint is - he bowed down to the children’s tears.
Saving a life
35-year-old Fatima Alikova (Tsalikova) was taken hostage in school No. 1 in the city of Beslan in 2004. It’s scary to remember what I had to go through during those three days spent in the school gym. At the moment of the explosion, Fatima managed to fly out the window. Stunned and not understanding what to do next, she literally ran blindly for about 20 meters and, seeing the garages, hid between them.
A young frightened woman, falling to the ground and covering her head with her hands, began to pray to St. Nicholas. Bullets whistled over her head. Fatima was terribly afraid that if she stopped praying for even a second, a bullet would hit her. She lay there like that for about two hours. When the shootout with the bandits died down, the woman heard voices and dared to call for help. She was immediately pulled out and carried to the ambulance. The doctors were very surprised: there was not a scratch on Fatima, although she was literally lying in the line of fire. The saved woman is convinced that this is the help of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
Quick help in finding a job
The son of Yulia Suvorova from Tatarstan, after military service in the army, could not find work in his native village for a long time. The plant where the young man had previously worked was closed, and in the regional center there were no vacancies. After four months of fruitless searches, the woman, in desperation, went to the temple to ask for help from her beloved saint. Placing a candle in front of the icon, she prayed:
“Please help us, we won’t be able to cope without your wonderful intercession.”
Three days later, a family acquaintance came to his native village from Moscow, looking for someone to work as a security guard. Yulia’s son has been working in Moscow for five years now, and recently his family was given the keys to a service apartment.
Giving a long-awaited child
39-year-old Russian woman Svetlana Lakhina (Chikantseva) today lives in the capital of Abkhazia - Sukhumi. The woman dreamed of having a baby for many years, but she was unable to carry her child to term for more than 10 weeks. One day she was asked to embroider an icon of the Archbishop of Myra for a Sunday school for July 8, the holiday of Family Day, Love and Fidelity. While doing needlework, the woman constantly asked St. Nicholas for help. And after 9 months, through the prayers of the holy righteous man, Svetlana gave birth to a girl, Juliana.
Help for Gentiles
Priest Alexy Kibardin was the last confessor of St. Seraphim Vyritsky and Tsar Nicholas II. During the Soviet years, he served time in a special camp for political prisoners in Transbaikalia. There were people there, believers and non-believers, people of other faiths. As Father Alexy himself said, after Stalin’s death, the prisoners of the special detention center were waiting for change and freedom, but this never happened. Then in one of his sermons the priest called:
“You and I know that Saint Nicholas is a great intercessor, a quick helper and a miracle worker; he helps even those of other faiths. Let us pray to St. Nicholas for our liberation and fast for three days before his feast day!”
On that day, forty people, among whom were non-believers, decided not to eat food or water three days before the feast of St. Nicholas the Great. Only twenty-six people were able to withstand such a strict fast and receive communion on May 22, 1955. On the same day, an order came to release these very people.
Happy marriage
Tatyana Stivrini's friend from Latvia dreamed of true female happiness - a family, a loving and beloved husband and, of course, children. But by the age of 40, she had a difficult divorce and loneliness behind her. The woman bore obedience in the temple. There she was told to pray to the saint. As soon as the opportunity arose, she approached the temple icon of the great saint of God and asked for help.
And one day, when a woman was wiping the icon of the saint, a man about her age approached her and asked with a smile: “ I’m watching you, you’re always at this icon.”
"
She also answered with a smile: “ I ask the Lord for a husband
.”
Laughing kindly, the man said: “ Here I am!”
" Today, the couple has been married for two years and is waiting for an addition to the family.
Resolution of the housing issue
Olga is a parishioner of the Church of St. Nicholas in Kotelniki. Her husband is in the military. Since 2002, the family has been on a waiting list to get their own home. Over the course of seven years, they were offered different options, but all of them had a significant drawback - very poor transport links, given that the family has small children.
Once, having come to the church for the liturgy, Olga, with deep faith and sincere hope, turned to St. Nicholas with a request to get an apartment in a comfortable area. A few days later, my husband was offered to look at an apartment not far from the Moscow Ring Road in the village of Ostrovtsy. As soon as they arrived in the village, they saw a large shield depicting a temple under construction in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra.
Olga and her husband understood who this option really came from. They received the keys to their own three-room apartment overlooking the chapel in honor of St. Seraphim of Sarov and the very church under construction, near which the walls of the future Sunday school had already been erected. The neighborhood has all the necessary communications and social facilities.
Interesting fact
The first Russian prince Askold was baptized into Orthodoxy with the name Nicholas.
The Holy to -the-Apostle
Princess Olga erected the first St. Nicholas Church on our land over the princely grave. In Korsun, in the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir was baptized. This name was subsequently borne by many rulers of Russia, including two emperors.
Intercession of the saint
Our family keeps an ancient icon of St. Nicholas, the Pleasant of God, who was especially revered by my great-grandmother Daria Pavlovna. Why? - a family legend tells about this.
Once my great-grandmother, then still a young woman, went to early service at the Iversky Vyksa Convent. She lived 15 kilometers from the monastery in the village. Veletma, and the road went through the forest. About halfway, a dirty, shaggy man suddenly jumped out of the forest and blocked Daria’s path. What was a lonely, defenseless woman to do? She began to pray fervently: “Father Nicholas, help!” And then a short, gray-haired old man came out of the forest with a stick in his hand. He waved his stick towards the villain, and said to his great-grandmother: “Do not be afraid of anything, servant of God.” The man looked at the old man, recoiled, then said, turning to Daria: “Well, woman, pray to God and your holy intercessor, otherwise…”, and he disappeared into the forest. And the old man also disappeared, just as he had never been... So miraculously the mercy of the Pleasant of God Nicholas appeared visibly. Talking about the miracle that happened to her, the great-grandmother always cried and prayed fervently in front of the icon of the Saint.
Stepan Fomenkov
The baby fell from the balcony
The tenth stamp depicts the miraculous rescue of a baby who fell from a balcony. The parents were busy in the kitchen, and at that time their small child went out onto the balcony and fell from it to the ground. There was practically no chance that he would survive. The parents ran out into the street and saw that a crowd of people had gathered around their son. The boy stood alive and unharmed. When the adults asked what happened to him, he said: “I was caught by my grandfather, who was in my grandmother’s suitcase. It turned out that the baby’s grandmother always quietly prayed to St. Nicholas, and hid the icon with the image of the saint in the lid of her suitcase. The story took place during the time of persecution of the Church.
I especially feel his presence in my life
I can’t count the number of times Nikolushka helped me. But I experienced the most tangible help from him when I was pregnant with my third child, when my husband left me. With a loan for an apartment, without work and without any help. Despite the catastrophic situation, there was always money. I asked the Lord, the Mother of God and various saints for help. But for some reason I always felt the presence of St. Nicholas.
One day, a dream arose that was daring for the financial situation at that time: to visit Bari and venerate its holy relics. Then this request flew out of my head. And then I find out that his relics are being brought to Russia! Glory to the Lord for everything!
Olga, Rostov-on-Don
“Why are you sleeping?”
The 19th hallmark of the icon depicts the story of Nicholas, a participant in the war. He escaped from captivity and made his way through occupied Ukraine to the east at night. One morning, exhausted, Nikolai fell asleep in the field. Suddenly he was woken up by an old man in vestments: “Why are you sleeping? Now the Germans are coming! Run into those bushes!” The warrior started to run, but in order to get to the indicated bushes, he had to swim across the river. On the other bank, from the bushes, Nikolai watched as the Germans came with a dog and looked for him in the rye. The dog ran up to the river, sniffed, but could not indicate the trail further.
See other most famous icons and images of St. Nicholas here:
The Mercy of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
There was zero chance of surfacing
The seventh hallmark recalls the rescue of a drowning man near the ship “Peter the Great,” and the eighth hallmark recalls the story of the discovery of the icon of St. Nicholas.
On the ninth mark, an incident that occurred with a Soviet submarine is recalled. Due to technical problems, the submarine was unable to surface. Then the captain of the ship called the entire crew and asked if there were believers among them. One of the sailors said that his mother gave him an icon with the image of St. Nicholas on the voyage. The captain ordered the sailor to bring it, and the entire crew to kneel and pray. Although the likelihood of floating to the surface, as the sailors later said, was zero, after a prayer to St. Nicholas, the ship safely reached the shore, and its crew remained unharmed. After this incident, the sailor Nikolai, to whom his mother gave him an icon of the saint, took holy orders and today serves as a priest in the church.
