Saint Nicholas of Bari

The secret gift maker who has become known as Santa Claus

A statue of Saint Nicholas
stands outside the Basilica

The feast of Saint Nicholas is held throughout the world every year on this day and is marked particularly in the city of Bari on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Puglia.

Saint Nicholas, who is believed to have died on 6 December, 343, is always remembered in Bari, because some of his remains are held in the Basilica of San Nicola, which has become an important pilgrimage site.

An early Christian bishop of Greek descent, Nicholas was born in Patara in Anatolia, which was then part of the Roman Empire, in about 270.

Because of the many miracles attributed to him, Nicholas is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. He has become the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, toymakers, brewers, and pawnbrokers.

His legendary habit of secretly making gifts also gave rise to the folklore about the character of Santa Claus.

In one of the earliest escapades attributed to Saint Nicholas, he is said to have rescued three young girls who were going to be forced into prostitution by dropping a sack of gold coins through the window of their house under the cover of darkness so that their father could afford to pay a dowry for them.

Other stories tell of him calming a storm at sea, chopping down a tree that was said to be possessed by a demon, and saving three innocent soldiers from wrongful execution.

Nicholas became Bishop of Myra, in present day Turkey, which was then part of the Roman Empire, but he was thrown into prison during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. He was released after the accession of Constantine, who was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity.

After his death, Saint Nicholas Church was built in Myra on the orders of the Roman Emperor Theodosius II, over the site of the church where Nicholas had served as bishop. His remains were then moved to a sarcophagus in the church.

Gentile da Fabriano's 1425 painting 
The Dowry of the Three Virgins

In 1087, when the Greek Christian inhabitants of the area were subjected to Moslem rule by Turkish invaders, a group of merchants from Bari removed the major bones from Nicholas’s skeleton without any authorisation. They took them home with them and they are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Nicola in the city.

The remaining bone fragments were later removed from Myra by Venetian sailors and taken back to Venice with them.

The earliest mentions of Saint Nicholas by chroniclers indicate that he already had an established following by the sixth century. The historian Procopius mentions the renovation of churches dedicated to him in Constantinople on the orders of the Emperor Justinian I.

Another saint, Nicholas of Sion, appears to have taken his name to honour him. Saint Nicholas of Sion is recorded as having visited his tomb to pay homage to him, in an account written 250 years after the death of the original Saint Nicholas.

In 2017, a portion of the bones of Saint Nicholas were sent on loan to Russia following an agreement made by Moscow with Pope Francis. More than one million people are recorded as having lined up in Moscow for a momentary glimpse of a gilded ark holding one of the saint’s ribs.

Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, became a popular figure in America during the 19th century, because of Dutch immigrants bringing the tradition of Sinterklaas, Saint Nicholas, with them in the 17th century when they arrived in New Amsterdam, which later became New York City.

The Basilica di San Nicola dates back to the 11th
century, when it was consecrated by Pope Urban II

Travel tip:

The remains of Saint Nicholas are said to produce myrrh - a resin historically used to make medicines, perfume and incense - and vials of myrrh can still be obtained from the Basilica di San Nicola where they are kept in Bari. Every year on his feast day on 6 December, a flask is extracted from his tomb by the clergy of the basilica. The liquid is said to seep out of the tomb gradually, but it is not known whether the myrrh emanates from the sarcophagus itself, or from the marble of the tomb, which is kept below sea level. There have also been several natural explanations put forward for the phenomenon. The Basilica di San Nicola was built between 1087 and 1197, during the Italo-Norman domination of Apulia.  Pope Urban II was present at the consecration of the crypt in 1089. The Basilica houses one of the most noteworthy Romanesque sculptural works of southern Italy, a cathedra - bishop's throne - finished in the late 11th century for Elias.

The Basilica of San Nicolò al Lido in
Venice also houses relics of the saint

Travel tip: 

In 1044, Venice, which had obtained fragments of Saint Nicholas’s bones, dedicated the San Nicolò al Lido monastery basilica to him on the north end of the Lido di Venezia. Modern scientific analysis has shown that the fragments in Venice belonged to the same person as the fragments being conserved in Bari, which seems to corroborate the stories of how the bones arrived in the two Italian cities. San Nicolò al Lido refers to both the San Nicolò Church and most importantly to its annexed Monastery of San Nicolò. They have been dated back to the origins of Venice in the early Middle Ages, when they were said to have been founded by the wealthy Zancaruol family.  The church houses a Madonna with Child by Palma il Vecchio and Palma il Giovane's San Giovannino.

Also on this day:

1478: The birth of courtier and diplomat Baldassare Castiglione 

1586: The birth of astronomer Niccolò Zucchi 

1794: The birth of opera singer Luigi Lablache

1921: The birth of film music composer Piero Piccioni

1975: The birth of businessman Andrea Agnelli

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Diocletian - Roman emperor

Restored stability but launched cruel purge

Diocletian was from a humble family
in what is now Solin in Croatia

A Roman cavalry commander who went under the name of Diocles was proclaimed Emperor on this day in 284.

He was given the full name Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus according to official inscriptions. He ruled as Diocletian.

Diocletian was sole emperor, albeit initially with a disputed claim to power, until 286, joint-emperor until 293, and co-emperor in a tetrarchy until 305.

Born at Salona, a coastal town in Dalmatia (now Solin in Croatia) into a family of humble status in 244, Diocletian rose to power through his military background.

After climbing through the ranks, he became cavalry commander to the emperor Carus. After the death of Carus in 283, while on a campaign in Persia, power passed to his two sons, Numerian and Carinus.

When Numerian was allegedly murdered by his Praetorian Prefect, Arrius Aper, in 284, Diocletian was proclaimed as emperor by Numerian’s troops. He took it upon himself to avenge the death of Numerian by killing Aper with his own hands.

At the start, however, Diocletian’s power was restricted to the areas controlled by his army, thought to be Asia Minor and Syria. The remainder of the empire was loyal to Carinus.

Carinus, who Diocletian
defeated to win power

A struggle for outright power ensued, coming to a head at the Battle of the Margus in 285, in which a critical factor is thought to have been the defection of Aristobulus, the Praetorian Prefect of Carinus, to fight on the side of Diocletian. Carinus was subsequently assassinated, leaving Diocletian as sole ruler.

It was not long before Diocletian decided that the empire was too large to be governed by one ruler alone and in 286 he appointed Maximian, a trusted military colleague, as co-emperor. While Diocletian ruled in the east, Maximian was in charge of the west.

In 293 there was a further devolution as Diocletian introduced the Tetrarchy - rule of four - a system under which each emperor appointed a caesar - a junior co-emperor - of his choice, who would take over as emperor in the event of their deaths.  Under the system, each co-emperor ruled over a quarter of the empire. The sharing of power, moreover, ensured that the death of one of the four would not lead to the upheaval that inevitably followed the death of a sole ruler.

These new caesars were Galerius in the east and in the west Constantius Chlorus, who ran Gaul and Britain and was the father of the future Constantine the Great.

An artist's reconstruction of the vast palace Diocletian
built for himself in what is now Split in Croatia

After the so-called Crisis of the Third Century, a period of barbarian invasions, civil wars, peasant rebellions and political instability, Diocletian brought stability. His army secured the empire's borders, while he sought out and eliminated his political rivals within those borders.

He reorganised the military and civil services and established new administrative centres in the four segments of the empire. The government of the empire worked more efficiently, although the creation of new layers of bureaucracy alongside the military campaigns came at a cost, as did the construction of a colossal palace complex in Dalmatia, so vast it today accounts for about half of what is known as the ‘old town’ in Split.  His new tax system was seen as more equitable, but taxes were generally higher.

Diocletian is also known for instigating the Diocletianic Persecution, which was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the history of the empire.

Although there was a persecution under Nero in around 64AD, for most of the first 250 years of the religion’s history, Christians had mostly been able to live in the Roman Empire in relative peace, go about their business and even attain positions of responsibility.

Christians were frequently made to fight for their lives
against lions during the Diocletianic Persecution

The roots of the Diocletianic Persecution are unclear, but it is thought that it was urged by Galerius, a fanatic follower of the traditional Roman religion who wanted to see unity, with no tolerance given to what was seen by some as a foreign, separatist cult who were operating as a state within the state.

In 303, the co-emperors issued a series of edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights and demanding that they comply with traditional religious practices. Later edicts demanded universal sacrifice, ordering all inhabitants to sacrifice to the gods.

Galerius, who succeeded Diocletian in 305, continued the persecution until 311.  It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 Christians were executed over the eight years of the purge, although the objective of annihilating Christianity was not achieved.  The creation of so many martyrs actually strengthened the Christian church.

Diocletian had abdicated in 305, in poor health, retiring to his palace in Split. He spent much of his remaining years gardening, rejecting a suggestion by Maximian that he should return to politics. He died in 313.

The Roman columns in front of the Basilica of San
Lorenzo is the best known Roman relic in Milan

Travel tip:

The capital of the Western Roman Empire, from which Maximian ruled, was Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands.  It was during Maximian’s reign that the population of Mediolanum grew from around 40,000 to more than 100,000, establishing it as one of the major cities on the Italian peninsula.  Most of the Roman ruins still visible in Milan today are located between Piazza San Sepolcro (near the Duomo) and Corso Magenta.  Among the most well-preserved examples of Roman construction in Milan can be found at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, in front of which is a colonnade of 16 Corinthian columns which were previously part of a second-century pagan temple.  The Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio contains the so-called ‘Tomb of Stilicho’, thought to contain the sarcophagus of Flavius Stilicho, a high-ranking Roman general.

The ruins of the Baths of Diocletian are part of a complex that
includes the Basilica of  Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

Travel tip:

The name of Diocletian is preserved in the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, built between 298 and 306 and the largest of the imperial baths, originally commissioned by Maximian. The baths occupy high-ground on the Viminal hill, the smallest of the seven hills of Rome, near what are today the Piazza della Repubblica and Termini rail station. They served as a bath for residents of the Viminal, Quirinal and Esquiline quarters. The excavation is one of the most accessible in Rome and requires about an hour and a half to look round.

Also on this day:

1851: The birth of Queen Margherita of Savoy

1902: The birth of World Cup-winning goalkeeper Giampiero Combi

1914: The birth of fashion designer Emilio Pucci

1978: The death of artist Giorgio de Chirico


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