St. Nicholas, Dec. 6th

Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Nicholas of Myra, the saint who slapped a heretic in the face. Nicholas lived 300 years after Jesus.

His parents died when he was a young man. Very much saddened by their death, he decided to wisely use the money he had inherited to perform works of charity.

For example, St. Nicholas heard about a man who lost all his money. Not knowing what to do, the man made a bad decision and decided to sell his three daughters for money. When St. Nicholas heard about this, he was shocked and saddened that a man would sell his own daughters. In order to prevent this from happening, on three different occasions, St. Nicholas went out in the dark night and threw bags of gold threw a window of the man’s home to help the poor man and his three daughters. The last time he threw a bag of gold in the window, the father of the three girls saw Nicholas and thanked him for his generosity and came to understand how wrong it was to try to sell his daughters.

Later in his life, St. Nicholas was unjustly put into prison for proclaiming the Catholic faith. While in prison he was chained and tortured along with the other Christians. However, once the emperor Constantine permitted Christians to freely practice their faith, St. Nicholas was freed from prison.

He later became a monk and then became an abbot of a monastery. When there was a vacancy in the diocese of Myra, he was chosen bishop.

At the Church council of Nicea, St. Nicholas spoke against Bishop Arius. Arius denied that Jesus was God. Nicholas became angry and slapped Arius in the face. Due to this event, the other bishops decided to take away his office as bishop. They forced him to wear ordinary clothes, rather than the clothes of a bishop. Some of the bishops put Nicholas into prison-- for his bad example.

However, Jesus wanted everyone to know He was pleased with St. Nicholas, so Our Divine Lord and His Blessed Mother appeared to him while he was in prison, restored his freedom, and reinstated his office as bishop.

Once freed from prison, he heard about three innocent men, who were to be executed. St. Nicholas spoke up against their accuser, until the accuser confessed he knew the three men were innocent, and so, were set free.

After his death, some sailors were going through a very rough storm at sea, and prayed to St. Nicholas for help, and they miraculously reached the harbor safely.

Today, let us pray to St. Nicholas, that through his intercession, we will try to be holy and do acts of charity. And may the Blessed Virgin Mary prepare us for the celebration of the birth of Her Son!