Saint Nicholas: Our Grandpa – Father Pimen Vlad

Listen to a tender word about the life of Saint Nicholas, adorned with some of the many miracles that Saint Nicholas worked during his life and, of course, after his falling asleep in the Lord.

Enjoy!

Here we meet again, my dears. I want to talk to you about a saint whom I know you all love, many call him “our grandfather”: Saint Hierarch Nicholas. Who was Saint Hierarch Nicholas, who is loved by all, the dear old man, the grandfather, as he was called, it is said, since he was a child. Old child, that is, with a wise mind.

He is said to have been born in Patara, in the area of Lycia, to good Christian parents, but also wealthy. They had no children and prayed a lot to God and the Mother of God to give them a child. And she gave them St. Nicholas. We could say that his whole life is a miracle: it is said that after birth, when they bathed him too, he stood for three hours, standing, not held by anyone. Somehow in honor of the Holy Trinity, he stood motionless for three hours. After that, he sucked only from his mother’s right breast, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he did not suck until evening, after sunset. By this he showed how he would be constantly fasting throughout his life.

After he grew older, he was taught and studied very well. He had a bishop uncle, also named Nicholas. The bishop seeing his zeal and how much he loved God, he took him close to him, and little by little, after he had grown and perfected himself also in academic matters, was ordained him made a deacon, afterwards a priest in his ward, became close with him.

At one point, when Bishop Nicholas, his uncle, went to Jerusalem (as at the time it took a month or two to get to Jerusalem and return), he let St. Nicholas take care of everything related to the diocese, to take care of it, because he saw that he was very wise and very merciful.

In order not to go into many details about how well he was doing, I will tell just one case: it is said that there was a man who had also been quite good in his life, but ended up poor for various reasons, his wife had died and he was alone. This man had three daughters, who were grown, they were to be married, but because of poverty nobody took them. Seeing that he had no chance, nor of maintenance, as those were difficult times, what did he think (because of poverty and because the devil had put this thing into him): “How about I give my daughters to fornication, to a house of debauchery, and thus earn a living?!”

And the fight began—he was also a Christian and he thought: “It is not good to do that, but we’re starving. My daughters will never marry because we have nothing! How can we earn some money?” Unfortunately, this is still the case today, as we know. How many girls go earn a living like this?! But because they were praying to God at the same time: “Lord, do something so we don’t get there!”

God revealed their situation to St. Nicholas. What Saint Nicholas thought: “This man was once in a better mood and, now if I go to give him money directly, he will feel humiliated somewhat, ashamed, so it’s better to go incognito!” And then, he went at night, took a bag of gold coins and as it was summer, threw it out the window in the house and left. The man woke up in the morning with a bag of gold coins in the house.

When he saw that, he said: “The miracle of God to save me from committing this sin, to send the girls to prostitute themselves!” And then, with that money, seeing that it was enough, he had the first girl, the eldest, get married. Because now she had her dowry, of course she found a boy not so poor. He continued to pray to God. From now on he also got courage, he no longer thought about giving girls to debauchery. So look how God ordained for the eldest girl!

St. Nicholas, seeing that something good had been done there, that is, one of the girls had married, went again at night and threw a bag of gold coins there again. Of course, the man again thanked God and had the second girl get married. And he kept praying to God, but he wanted to know who was that benefactor through whom God works, and he lay in wait.

He no longer slept at nights, rested when he could during the day, and kept guard at night. Time had passed, and he thought: “If God wants to work a miracle through this man, I want to know him!” Of course, one night, he heard when the bag of gold coins fell (Saint Nicholas had come again) and then he ran quickly after him, caught up with him and recognized him, as the Saint was not unknown, because he was doing a lot of good, to many people. He thanked him and then Saint Nicholas told him not to tell anyone.

The man had his third daughter get married, he was glad that he managed to put his daughters in their place, and God did not leave him, because the girls afterwards took care of him. So see how St. Nicholas worked!

Later, after the bishop returned to his place, St. Nicholas also wished to go to the holy places. He also went and worshipped everywhere. It is said that at night he would go there, to the church of the Holy Sepulcher and when it was locked, he would pray and the gates of the church would open on their own, he would enter and worship, pray. So he had a lot of grace from God!

After that, he returned and went to a secluded monastery. He also wanted to lead a more hermit prayer life. It was a more secluded monastery. And he did ascesis there for a while, but God didn’t want to keep him hidden, He wanted to have him out and use him to help the world. St. Nicholas even had a vision in which God said to him: “Get ready as I want you to go for service to the people!” And then he realized that God wanted to make him a bishop, that he was already a priest, and he thought of going to a foreign city, where he would no longer be known.

He went to a fortress in Mira, which also belonged to Lycia and was a more secluded area. He told himself that nobody knew him there and he lived like a poor man. He went to church, prayed, lived with what he could, unknown.

Before long, the local bishop passed to the Lord and the other bishops were thinking: “Who shall we put in place? Let us not decide this according to our human thinking, let’s pray to God to reveal us [whom we should have]!” And they started praying. At one point, an angel appeared to the eldest bishop there and said: “In the morning, at the first hour, when the morning service begins, whoever enters the church first, know that he is destined by God to be your bishop!” Of course, the bishop went to church much earlier and was watching who would come in first.

St. Nicholas, as was his custom – always came from the beginning, as early as possible to the service, came slowly and entered the church. When the bishop saw him, he approached, saw him humbly, and asked him who he was. The saint realized something was wrong and said nothing.

“Tell me, please, what’s your name?”

–Nicholas.

– God has decided that you will be a bishop in this city!

He tried to resist, but the bishop took him and brought him to the other bishops, and said: “Look, he is whom God has decided!” But St. Nicholas kept asking for time, he kept delaying it, and at night the Savior appeared to him and gave him a gospel. And the Mother of God gave him the omophore, clothed him with omophore, and said he should be the bishop of the city. And then he did not resist anymore, when he saw that it was a decision from above, and became bishop there.

He began to help people tear down the idol heads that were there, as to turn people toward God. And he worked many other miracles!

I had forgotten to tell you, when he was going to Jerusalem on the ship, there was a storm at sea, and the sailors were desperate, and they cried out to him, as they knew he had a holy life: “Father, pray for us!” And when he raised his hands in prayer, the sea calmed down. A sailor that was on the mast fell from above and died. The saint prayed for him and came back to life. So he was always working wonders.

And while he was a bishop, there were several instances where he saved people. There were three princes who were wronged. Someone who did not like them, as they say, also from high office, went to the one who was second only to the emperor, gave him money and fed him lies: “You see these princes are plotting against the emperor.” He bribed him with money to remove the three from their positions and sentence them to death.

The one who was bribed went to the emperor and falsely accused them of plotting [against him]. That’s when it was decided that they should be locked up in prison. The one who started all this feared people might find out that he lied [and] wanted to make sure that they would be sentenced to death, and also gave money to have the emperor cut off their heads. He went again to the emperor and said: “Emperor, the three of them, even in prison they stand and plot against you, you must sentence them to death!” And then the emperor, believing him, trusting in that man, said: “If so, then tomorrow, off with their heads!”

When those innocents in prison found out, while not even knowing why they were incarcerated there, they prayed. They remembered that St. Nicholas had helped them before, that they were also descended from that area of Lycia, and then they began to shout: “St. Nicholas, help us!” That night, the emperor saw St. Nicholas come and frightened him: “Emperor, do not condemn the three princes to death, for they are innocent! They have been falsely accused, release them tomorrow, or I will bring war against you!” The emperor was frightened, but he didn’t know what to do. The same night, Saint Nicholas appeared in the same manner before the bishop.

When he heard from his acquaintances that the emperor had had the same dream, the bishop went to the emperor and told him what he had dreamed. Hearing this, the emperor summoned the imprisoned princes and asked them what they had done, to which they replied that they had done nothing wrong and had not plotted against him. The emperor also asked them who Nicholas was, who appeared to him in his dream and defended them. The princes said that he was a bishop of Myra with a holy life, and they had much use and help from him.

Then the emperor told them that all three were free and for this they had to thank St. Nicholas for helping them. The emperor asked the princes, when they arrived in his city, to tell St. Nicholas to pray for him and not to be angry with him, as it was for his ignorance that he was about to bring death upon the princes. Did you see how St. Nicholas freed them?

After that he led a beautiful, wise life, helping everyone, doing much charity and teaching everyone the right faith. He even participated at the council against Arius, and many miracles took place there, but I will pass over those so as not to talk too much. Saint Nicholas reached an old age and went to the Lord, being buried in the church there. Soon his relics sprang myrrh and performed many miracles. I’ll just tell you one more miracle. There was somewhere a family that had great devotion to St. Nicholas, and always, on St. Nicholas’ feast, knowing that he was merciful, they would first go to Mass in the morning, make a memorial there in honor of the saint, and then make a rich meal at home and gather all the poor in the area and give them a meal. They served those with their own hands, in honor of St. Nicholas.

When they reached old age, they didn’t have any more resources. One day they were discussing: “Well, we are old, St. Nicholas’ day is approaching, what should we do because we have no money, we have nothing, how can we not give meals to the poor on the Saint’s Day? What can we do? And looking there, the woman found a carpet that she had from her dowry in her youth, which was very valuable in its time, had cost about 10 gold coins, and she said to her husband: “Dear, take this carpet, go to the market and sell it. It was worth 10 golden coins, but give him for 5, just to sell him for sure. Don’t come home without selling it so we can make a feast for the saint this year too.”

The husband took the carpet and went to the market. There he kept trying [to sell it], but nobody came. At one point, an old man with a white beard approaches, quietly:

“Man, how much for the carpet?”

“It used to be worth 10 gold coins, but I give it for 5. My woman said to give it away for 5 just to sell him, because we want to make a feast for the saint.

“Look,” says the old man, “take 10 gold coins, as much as the carpet is worth!”

Then he took the rug and left. Gladly, our man went to the market, made the necessary purchases, everything he needed. He rented a couple of mules from there to bring all his produce home.

Meanwhile, the old man who had bought the carpet came to the woman’s house and said: “Look, I met your husband in the market and he gave me the rug to bring home.” The woman took it grumbling: “I told him to sell it at half price, just to make a feast for the saint and look what he did?! Did he just send my carpet home? How do we celebrate the day?”

A couple of hours pass and the man appears at home, with his mules loaded. He walks through the gate and his wife walks forward: “I trusted you to sell the carpet and now you’ve sent it back home?” He didn’t understand: “Wait, what do you mean? Look at the mules!” And then they both realized, their minds opened, that St. Nicholas had bought their carpet, gave them ten gold coins and brought the carpet back home. Seeing their love, he worked this miracle, brought them the rug back and gave them enough money to make a feast for him. Do you see how the saint did not leave them?! And they made a feast greater than in all years, they called all the poor of the city there. See how wonderful St. Nicholas is?!

I will add another miracle that I remembered just now, so that you can see that St. Nicholas helps even people of other faiths if they cry out for him. It is said that there was a Turk somewhere in the Constantinople area. He once passed through the square and saw a Christian selling icons and shouting: “Buy icons! Take the icon of St. Nicholas, who guards your house, guards your wealth!” The Turk had a problem: for a while, from time to time, someone would break into his house and steal from him. And when he heard this, he turned to the Christian and asked:

“What do you say this man in the painting is doing?”

“Well, he guards your house and your property.”

“Is he such a good guard?”

– Very good! And whoever asks for his help and has his icon in the house is always guarded.

“And what does this man eat?”

– What does he eat!? Look, you put it on the east wall, put a lamp in front of it, and light it there. That’s his food! And you ask him for help every day.

The Turk gladly went home, put the icon at sunrise, he also bought a candle, lit it there. Glad to have a guard in the house, he also boasted to the neighbors: “I brought a guard, Nicholas, no one breaks into my house anymore!” After bragging about it, he leaves for work the next day. The one who broke into the house was a neighbor of his, when he heard about it he said to himself: “Did he get a guard?! What did he get, a painting? Come on, I’m going to break into his house now, embarrass him!”

The thief went, broke into his house again, and stole everything he could from the house. The Turk comes home – the house is broken into, and the thief came again. Bitterly he said: “Look, Nicholas, what have you done? I gave you food, I put you here, as that Christian told me, I asked you to guard my house. What did you do? Have you slept since you weren’t on guard here? Look what he did to me, he stole from my house again!” He prayed as he well as he could: “Please, tomorrow I’ll go to work again, don’t let them steal from me!” He prayed as he well as he could and left the next day.

The neighbor, again laughing: “I’ll give him another run and steal what else he has around the house.” He went in again and collected what he found there, but when he left, he wanted to see who Nicholas was. He saw the icon on the wall and wanted to steal it too. When he reached out to take it, he stiffened suddenly, his hand on the icon. And not only did he remain like that, but it was as if an electrical current was running through him, he was in pain, and he kept shouting: “Nicholas, let me, let me go!” Nothing! He was stuck shouting around.

Another 2-3 hours pass and the Turk returns. He finds the house broken into again. When he enters, he sees the neighbor stunned in place by the icon, screaming there: “So you’re the thief? Nicholas, hold him tight, don’t let him go, I’ll cure him [of his habits] now!” He went after a broomstick and started beating the thief: “Take this, will you ever steal again? Hold him, Nicholas, don’t let him escape, let me cure him of his stealing habits. The neighbor I trusted…”

And he beat the thief well until he took pity on him. “That’s it, Nicholas, let him go!” Nothing happened. When he saw this, he began to cry out of mercy for his neighbor: “Hey, Nicholas, come on, please, let him go, look, I forgive him, forgive him too! He promised to bring everything back!” At that moment the neighbor recovered, took his hand off the icon, let go of the Saint. He quickly went home trembling, brought everything he had stolen and no longer stole. And the Turk, when he saw how wonderful St. Nicholas was, went to the Christian and asked:

– Look what miracles he did, what should I do?

– Go to the bishop of the city.

The Turk went and told his miracle, and the bishop said to him: “Do you see how the Saint helped you? Now do the right thing!” He taught him the Christian faith and the Turk became a Christian.

Do you see how many miracles St. Nicholas, our grandfather, performs? Pray to him in faith, know that he never leaves us! He is a wonderful Saint, a merciful Saint! Especially the poor should pray to him! See, those of you who are in trouble, pray to him! Girls who have problems, don’t do what some man wants, pray to him and he will help you get married, find the right thing!

May the Mother of God help us, for she is the mistress of us all, together with Saint Nicholas, who will soon be commemorated on December 6! May they help us and keep us safe!

God help us!

Our grandfather! You see here, I didn’t tell you at first, I’m in the orchard, here are pear trees, then pomegranates, here I have quinces. God has given us everything in abundance! God help us!

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