STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE SAINT’S BODY
St. Nicholas, as I have said, died in the year 342 and was buried with
great honor in the cathedral at Myra.
Being the patron saint of such roving folk as sailors, merchants and
travellers it was only natural that his body should have lain in
perpetual peril from thievish hands. The relics of saints were highly
prized because it was held that they performed miracles on behalf of
the townsfolk and of the strangers who visited their shrines. Of course
the relics of so great and popular a saint as Nicholas were especially
coveted, and most so by the classes of whom he was the patron.
In those rude days it was believed that no saint was greatly troubled
by the manner in which his body was procured. Even if it were stolen
and reburied elsewhere by the robbers themselves the body worked
miracles in its new abode as cheerfully as it had done in the old one.
Moreover it drew trade and custom to any city in which it was enshrined
and so brought wealth to the people of the entire neighborhood.
In fact pilgrims from various parts of the world came in crowds to the
shrine at Myra. As the fame of Saint Nicholas increased so did the
value of his relics. At various times during the first six centuries
after his burial attempts were made to carry off his body by force or
by fraud.
None of these attempts was successful until, in the year 1084, certain
merchants from the city of Bari, in southeastern Italy, landed at Myra
to find that the entire countryside had been laid waste by an invasion
of the Turks. All the men who could bear arms had gathered together and
were now gone in pursuit of the invaders. Three monks only had been
left behind to stand guard over the shrine of Saint Nicholas.
It was an easy task for the merchants of Bari to overpower these monks,
break open the coffin which contained the body and bear it away with
them to their own city.
Here it was received with great joy. A fine new church was built on
the site of an old one which had been dedicated to Saint Stephen and
which was now torn down to make room for its successor. This was to
serve as a shrine for the stolen body. The new church is still standing
and though it is now old it is still magnificent. In a crypt or vault
under its high altar lies all that was mortal of the one-time Bishop
of Myra. On the very day of the re-burial, so it is said, no less than
thirty people who attended the ceremony were cured of their various
ailments.
[Illustration: Heads of the Christ-child.
Selected from Raphael’s pictures.]
Such is the story that is generally accepted. But another story was and
is told by the people of Venice. They, too, claim that they possess
the body of Saint Nicholas, and insist that it was taken from Myra by
Venetian merchants in the year 1100, and reburied in Venice by the
citizens.
They do not accept the story told by the Bari merchants, but declare
that the latter carried off from another spot the body of another
saint, possibly of the same name, which they palmed off upon their
fellow citizens as the body of the former Bishop of Myra.
The true body, they claim, is that which lies to-day, as it has lain
for centuries, in the church of St. Nicholas on the Lido. The Lido is a
bank of sand which projects, promontory fashion, out of the Grand Canal
in Venice into the Adriatic Sea.
The fame of a holy man so closely connected with two great trading
ports of the Middle Ages was sure to spread wider and wider among
the nations of Europe. And, indeed, we find that everywhere sailors
acknowledged him as their special guide and protector and sang his
praises wherever they landed.
Both at Bari and at Venice the churches dedicated in his honor stand
close to the mouth of the harbor. Venetian crews on their way out to
sea would land at the Lido and proceed to the church of St. Nicholas,
there to ask for a blessing on their voyage. There also they would stop
on their home-coming to give thanks for a safe return. Sailors of Bari
would in the same way honor the shrine in which lay what they claimed
was the true body of Saint Nicholas.
Many tales of miraculous escapes from shipwreck, due to the
intercession of their patron, were related by seamen and travellers,
not only at home, but at the various ports where they stopped, so that
the name and fame of the good Saint Nicholas grew more resplendent
every year. Churches erected in his honor abound in the fishing
villages and harbors of Europe.
In England alone, before the Reformation, there were 376 churches which
bore his name. The largest parish church in the entire land is that of
St. Nicholas at Yarmouth, which was built in the twelfth century and
retains that name to the present day. Some of the other churches were
rebaptized by the Protestants.
The churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas in Catholic countries are
especially dear to people who make their living out of the sea. Sailors
and fishermen when ashore frequent them, and if they have just escaped
from any of the perils of the deep they show gratitude to their patron
by hanging up on the church walls what are known as votive pictures.
These are either prints of the saint or sketches, rudely drawn by local
artists, which represent the danger that the sailors had run and the
manner in which they had escaped. Often a figure of Saint Nicholas
appears in the darkened heavens to calm the fears of the imperilled
mariners.
It is fishermen and sailors also who take the chief part in the great
festival in honor of Saint Nicholas that is celebrated at Bari on the
fifth and sixth of December in every year.
Bari, it may be well to explain, is a very old and still a very
important seaport on the eastern coast of southern Italy. It is
situated on a small peninsula projecting into the Adriatic. From very
early days the city has been the official seat of an archbishop and
hence possesses a grand old cathedral.
Grand, however, as is this cathedral, it is eclipsed both in beauty and
in popular regard by the church of Saint Nicholas which I have already
mentioned as containing the bones of the saint. These repose in a
sepulchre, or huge tomb, that stands in a magnificent crypt some twenty
feet beneath the high altar. Water trickles out through the native
rock which forms the tomb. It is collected by the priests on a sponge
attached to a reed, is squeezed into bottles, and sold or given away
under the name of “Manna of Saint Nicholas” as a cure for many ailments.
On the eve of Saint Nicholas’ Day, that is on the day before it
(December 5th) the city of Bari is overrun by hosts of pilgrims from
the neighboring cities, as well as others from the furthest corners
of Italy and even from Mediterranean France and Spain and Adriatic
Austria. All Catholic mariners whose ships happen to be lying in port
at the time are sure to join the throng.
The pilgrims carry staffs decorated with olive, palm or pine branches.
From each staff depends a water bottle, which is to be filled with
the manna of Saint Nicholas. Most of the pilgrims are barefoot. All
are clad in the picturesque costumes in use in their native places on
holiday occasions.
On entering the church the pilgrims may, if they choose, make a
complete circuit of it, moving around on their knees with their
foreheads pressed every now and then against the marble pavement. Often
a little child leads them by means of a string or handkerchief, one end
being held in the mouth of the pilgrim.
Next day, December 6th,--the actual feast of Saint Nicholas,--is
celebrated by a procession of the seafaring men of Bari. Rising at
daybreak they enter the church early in the morning. The priests, who
have assembled to greet them, take down from the altar a wooden image
of Saint Nicholas, clad in the robes of a bishop. This is handed over
to the care of the paraders for the rest of the day. The priests may
accompany the image only as far as the outer gate of the church. The
procession, with the image in the hands of its leaders, files out into
the street and, followed by the populace, visits the cathedral and
other sacred or public places. Then the leaders take Saint Nicholas
out to sea in a boat. Hundreds of other boats accommodate their fellow
paraders, as also such of the citizens as can afford the luxury, and
follow Saint Nicholas over the waves.
[Illustration: The Christ-child surrounded by angels.
Painting by Rubens.]
The shore meanwhile is lined with the bulk of the populace of Bari
and the pilgrim visitors who eagerly await the return of the image at
night-fall. Bonfires are then burned, rockets are shot off, everybody
who possesses a candle or torch lights it and the people fall in line
with the paraders to restore the sacred image to its guardians at the
church.