The Orthodox Church today celebrates the Christmas of one of the most revered saints in Russia – Nicholas the Wonderworker.
At first, the feast was celebrated only in Patara, where the saint was born. And in the Lycian Worlds, which is in Asia Minor, where Nicholas the Wonderworker served with the rank of archbishop.
After that, in the Nicene Empire, the celebration of the birth of the saint of God was spread by the knights-crusaders.
Nikolai the Pleasant, helping everyone and everything, was born in 258 in the south of Asia Minor.
Nikolai’s father and mother professed Christianity and lived in accordance with God’s commandments, but their life was darkened by the fact that the spouses did not have offspring. They prayed a lot to the Lord day and night for the sending of a child. And a miracle happened: a son was born.
Theophanes and Nonna, the saint’s parents, promised to devote their only child to God, to serve him.
Nicholas the Pleasant in his life showed great mercy to those around him, always came to the aid of those in need. He distributed all his possessions to the poor, led a simple and ascetic lifestyle, became famous as a great saint of God.
The saint never ignored a single request for help. Throughout his life, he deliberately deprived himself of all sorts of benefits, devoted his earthly existence to serving people and God.
When the miracle worker died (in 345 – 351), his body turned out to be incorrupt, and did not undergo natural processes of decomposition.
Prayer to Nikolai the Pleasant:
Oh, all-holy Nicholas, the most splendid Lord, our warm intercessor, and everywhere in sorrow, a quick helper!
Help me sinful and sad in this present life, pray to the Lord God for granting me the forgiveness of all my sins, greatly sinned from my youth, in all my life, in deed, word, thought and all my feelings;
And at the end of my soul, help the accursed one, pray to the Lord God, all creatures of the Sourer, to save me from airy ordeals and eternal torment: may I always glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and your merciful intercession, now and forever and forever. Amen.