Orthodox icon | Transfer of the Reliques of Saint Nicholas of Myra | 24923

Saint Nicholas of Myra was born around 283 in Patara, now ruins near Kalkan in Turkey and died around 348 in Myra (Lycia), now Demre in Turkey. He is considered one of the famous saints of the Eastern Churches and the Latin Church. His commemoration days, December 6th, May 9th and July 29th, are associated with numerous customs. Nicholas worked in the first half of the 4th century. as Bishop of Myra in the region of Lycia in Asia Minor, then part of the Roman, later the Byzantine Empire, now Turkey. His Greek name Nikólaos means “victory of the people” and was already in use in pre-Christian times. Saint Nicholas is considered the patron saint of Russia, children, women who want to have children, women giving birth, the elderly, travelers, sailors, judges, lawyers, notaries, pharmacists, innkeepers, for happy marriages and recovery of stolen objects.

After the evacuation of the city of Myra and before its conquest by Seljuk troops in 1087, southern Italian merchants stole the relics from the saint’s tomb in the Church of St. Nicholas in Demre and took them to their native Bari. The relics are housed in the purpose-built Basilica of San Nicola. However, the Turkish Nicholas Foundation is demanding the relics of the saint be returned. The city of Bari celebrates the Feast of the Translatio every year in honor of the saint from May 7th to 9th, the presumed date of the arrival of the relics.

Commemoration of the transfer of the bones to Bari: May 9, May 20.

Poliment gilded border.