1. Information on the origin of St Nicholas. 
Saint
Nicholas (Sankt Nikolaus) Day is on the 6th of December. It commemorates
his death around 345 AD.
Accounts of his life are not clear nor historically
confirmed. It is said that he was a native of Patara, a city in the
ancient district of Lycia, Asia Minor (which is now Turkey).
He entered the monastry and subsequently became archbishop of the church in the
coastal town of Myra, in the district of Lycia.
On his death he was buried in Myra.
However, in the 1ate 11th century, some Italian merchants or seamen transported
his remains to Bari, in Italy, where today his tomb is a shrine. The
beautiful basilica of St. Nicholas was built to honour him.
From
Bari the veneration of the saint spread to Metz in Lorraine. It extended
down the Rhine to the Netherlands and spread to the Hanseatic League of
cities, and on to England and Scandinavia. Everywhere statues
and churches were built in his honour. The Hanseatic city of Hamburg still
has a St Nicholas church close to the harbour to welcome mariners from all over
the world. It was in the St Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, that the
Christmas carol "Silent Night" was performed for the first time.
The township of Oberndorf is north of Salzburg on the Salzach river opposite the
German city of Laufen.
St Nicholas became the patron saint of children,
scholars, sailors and merchants. He is also the patron saint of
Russia.
There
are many legends and stories about St. Nicholas. He is said to have
brought sick children back to their health. Sailors, in
particular, honour him because they claim he has appeared to them during violent
storms and saved their lives.
One of the most famous stories tells how he
helped three unfortunate young sisters, who were unable to marry their suitors
because the father, a poor nobleman, did not have enough money for the dowries.
St Nicholas came to their aid by giving them the money anonymously.
One of the stories accounts St. Nicholas throwing the purses filled with gold at
the girls’ windows. Another tells of him climbing up on to the roof to
drop the money down the chimney, where it landed in the stockings the girls had
hung by the fire to dry.
Another
story tells of how there was famine in Myra and that St Nicholas remained calm.
Finally three ships appeared on the horizon laden with grain from Egypt.
St Nicholas wanted to purchase the wheat but the sailors refused to sell as they
would be punished severely if they arrived at their destination without the
valuable cargo. St Nicholas asked the sailors to give the people of
Myra a little grain and assured the sailors that when they arrived at their
destination not an ounce would be missing. The sailors were
sceptical, but they listened and agreed to give the grain.
When their ship arrived at Constantinople, they were surprised to see that
all the grain had been replaced. In Myra itself a miracle
occurred. St Nicholas had given each family a little grain,
while the remainder was sown in the fields. Until this harvest
was ready, the people were not hungry as the grain they had been given did not
run out. Every day they had enough grain to make bread. When the
fields was ready to harvest, the grain in their homes ran out. 
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