Saint Nicholas

Born around 270 to wealthy Christian parents in Patara, a seaport in Roman Anatolia, Nicholas made pilgrimages to Egypt and Syria before returning to become Bishop of Myra. He was imprisoned under Diocletian's persecution and freed after Constantine took power. Stories written centuries later describe him rescuing three girls from prostitution with secret sacks of gold, calming storms, saving condemned soldiers, even resurrecting three murdered children a butcher had pickled as pork. He died on 6 December 343. In 1087, merchants from Bari stole his bones from Myra - then under Seljuk rule - and enshrined them in Italy, while Venetian sailors later took the fragments that remained. The folklore grew: patron saint of sailors, thieves, merchants, children, unmarried people. Sinterklaas became Santa. The bishop who dropped coins through windows became the man who comes down chimneys.