The Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker - what is possible, what is not, how to celebrate, signs and traditions. Feast of the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker 11

The memory of Nicholas is honored by holding services, Christians come to the temple and read prayers, and if I can’t come, then they do it at home in front of the icon.

What to do on St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

On Nikolai's birthday, it is customary to donate to charity. They do this not to please the Wonderworker, but also as an ordinary good deed. They give gifts to orphans, express sympathy and moral support for the sick and elderly.

They don't forget about family. Birthday people are congratulated, especially those named Nikolai. People try to help each other in every possible way, some with a kind word, some with money, they live with love in their hearts, and do not quarrel.

On August 11, every believer can ask Nicholas to help fulfill his cherished desire, and on this day he will hear the prayer and help. He helps all those who suffer. The saint can heal the sick, help with lack of money, with finding a job, with a successful marriage, or even passing exams. Those who were left homeless can find a home again.

Saint Nicholas acts as Father Frost or Santa Claus, who brings joy and gifts to children on December 19th. And since he saved sailors many times during storms, he is also considered the protector of sailors.

Don’t forget that Nikolai doesn’t create miracles in one day; you should thank him for every miracle that happened in your life. It is worth reading a prayer in his honor, living as he taught and as he lived himself.

What not to do

There are also several prohibitions against St. Nicholas the Wonderworker:

You cannot work in the garden, field or vegetable garden; this is a very important holiday.
Sewing, knitting and embroidery are prohibited.
You need to behave well and with restraint with your loved ones; on this day you cannot quarrel with them or swear.
You cannot do housework, laundry, or cleaning.

Today, this wonderful Holiday, deeply revered by our ancestors, is just beginning to return to the consciousness of Orthodox Rus'. Therefore, it is natural that for the majority of even church people, August 11 is in no way associated with the memory of the great saint of God. Even for scientists, the holiday of Christmas is the most mysterious of all church memories associated with the name of the saint. It is not known exactly when and where this holiday was first established. Was it celebrated in Byzantium or does it belong to the list of Russian memories? What “status” did it have among other commemorations of the church year? This holiday is not found in any modern Local Orthodox Church. Today, the Nativity of St. Nicholas is an exclusively Russian church tradition, which, however, has ancient historical roots (known since the 12th–13th centuries). It was the absence of the holiday in the monthly calendars of other Orthodox Churches that most likely became the reason for the abolition of its celebration in the Russian Church during the reign of Catherine II.

Nevertheless, by the Providence of God, the good tradition of celebrating the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is returning to the Russian Orthodox Church. And we should become more familiar with the meaning of this Holiday in order to know its depth and importance.

First of all, let us pay attention to the fact that in the Orthodox Church, in addition to the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the birthdays of only three holy people are celebrated - the Most Holy Theotokos, John the Baptist and St. Nicholas. And if the memories of the birth of the Mother of God and the Forerunner of the Lord John are closely connected with the coming of the Savior into the world and constitute a kind of prologue to this event, then the birth of St. Nicholas the Pleasant seems to fall out of this line and may even seem somewhat artificial.

However, if we turn to the liturgical texts of Christmas, we will see that the celebrated event in them takes on a universal scale:

“Come, all good saints, kings and princes and dignitaries and all people, men and women, young men and virgins, and all ages and all wealth, accordingly, sing, the honorable and glorious birth of St. Nicholas the All-Blessed...”; “Your wonderful and glorious Nativity, Saint Nicholas, the Orthodox Church brightly celebrates today...”

This universal scale of the birth of a righteous man, even one as revered and dearly loved as, can indeed cause bewilderment. Moreover, in the hymns in honor of the saint one can notice clear parallels with the glorification of the Mother of God. “Today, fertile Nona gives birth to God’s chosen child in the Dwelling Place of all, the King and Creator of Christ God...” is sung in one of the stichera of the holiday. This is a paraphrase from the service of the Nativity of the Theotokos: “Today the barren Anna gives birth to the Mother of God, chosen from all generations to be the Dwelling Place of all the King and Creator of Christ God...” Also with the line: “This is a day of joy, rejoice, people...” (option: “This is the day of the Lord, rejoice, people...”) from the following of St. Nicholas, the hymns begin, repeated several times in the service of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

We see amazing parallels when the Mother of God and the saint are called “the Home of all the King and Creator.” We are timidly perplexed by the comparison of the greatness of the birthday of She, whose appearance in the world directly announced the imminent coming of the Savior, and just one of the righteous. But all this is not accidental; the Church teaches us an important lesson here.

After the coming of the Savior into the world, after His death on the cross and resurrection, every human person involved in Christ becomes the highest value of the Universe. In an amazing way, the glory of God Himself is imprinted in the life of one who has accepted the Son of God into his heart. The life of one person becomes significant for the entire Universe. Moreover, only the Christian faith, unity with the Savior, fills human life with such meaning.

We are often dissatisfied with our life, with the circumstances or situations that enter into it, burdening us with everyday worries. The rare joyful moments that one has to experience too quickly lose their color in the diversity of everyday life. Even such an event as the birth of a child does not always please loved ones for a long time. Everyday life and the realities of life, unfortunately, often take their toll. But from the vaults of the temple, slightly illuminated by the quiet evening light, touching words descend to us: “Rejoice, Theophanes and Nono, from them salvation was born to man... Theophanes, Rejoice, Nono, rejoice in glorifying the True Saint and Savior Jesus the Only Lord.” Here the joy is completely different, real, enduring, heavenly joy, because it is filled with hope and trust in God!

« Worldwide joy from the righteous arose to us, from Theophanes and Nona...” - continues to be heard even in the most hidden corner of the temple. “Come, all idle lovers, let us praise the honest birth of St. Nicholas of God...” - the heavenly forces serving with the priests call upon everyone standing in the house of the Heavenly Father.

The wonderful holiday of Christmas reveals to us the greatness of the gift of Grace that the Savior bestows on everyone who comes to Him with a pure heart. This is an amazing hymn of the unity of man with God, the glorification of the Son of God, who accomplished the Redemption of the human race. Everything here reminds us of God’s closeness to man. All is filled with sweet promises of true joy, glory and eternal life for those who will tirelessly strengthen their determination to follow Christ.

“Triumph, all earth-born people, rejoice spiritually, all idle lovers, on the glorious Nativity of St. Christ and the Wonderworker Nicholas, praying to Christ God unceasingly for our souls,” we hear the call again and again to draw closer in heart to the great saint of God. In a way that is incomprehensible to us, completely new dimensions of human life appear on this holiday. The birth of a baby, a person like each of us, becomes a worldwide celebration. The joy of pious spouses overcomes centuries and millennia, without diminishing in the least... But the answer to this bewilderment is not lost in the past, it also fills us with hope that everyone can know the same joy in their own lives. The answer is heard in every phrase, every word of the service: draw closer to God - and He will give you eternity, bring peace, make you His...

On August 11, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra.

It is worth noting that in the Orthodox Church, in addition to the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the birthdays of only three holy people are celebrated - the Most Holy Theotokos, John the Baptist and St. Nicholas.

The feast of the birth of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is the most mysterious of all church memories associated with the name of the saint, writes Pravoslavie.ru. It is not known exactly when and where this holiday was first established. Was it celebrated in Byzantium or does it belong to the list of Russian memories? This holiday is not found in any modern Local Orthodox Church.

Today, the Nativity of St. Nicholas is an exclusively Russian church tradition, which, however, has ancient historical roots (known since the 12th–13th centuries). It was the absence of the holiday in the monthly calendars of other Orthodox Churches that most likely became the reason for the abolition of its celebration in the Russian Church during the reign of Catherine II.

It is worth noting that Nicholas the Wonderworker is one of the most revered saints in the Orthodox world. He became famous as the great Pleasant of God. Believers not only of the Orthodox, but also of the Catholic and other churches pray to him.

History of the holiday - who is Saint Nicholas

Nicholas the Wonderworker was born back in 258 in the city of Patara, not far from Lycia, on the southern coast of the Asia Minor peninsula. His parents Feofan and Nonna were poor people, but very religious. They constantly prayed to God to give them a child. God heard their prayers and gave them a son, asking in return that he devote his life to serving him.

Baby Nikolai began to show his miraculous abilities at birth. He performed his first miracle by healing his mother during childbirth from a serious illness. And during the baptism in the font, the newborn stood on his feet for three hours, giving honor to the Holy Trinity.

Nikolai's life proceeded in simple and ascetic everyday life. While still a child, he began to study the Divine Scripture and spent whole days in the temple, and at night he prayed and read books.

Already from infancy, Saint Nicholas began a life of fasting, taking his mother’s milk on Wednesdays and Fridays, only once, after the evening prayers of his parents. As he grew a little older, he succeeded in studying the Divine Scripture, spent whole days in the temple, and at night he prayed and read books. Constantly in labor and prayer, Nicholas showed great mercy to those around him, came to the aid of the suffering and distributed all his property to the poor. He himself led a simple and very ascetic lifestyle and became famous as a great saint of God.

During his lifetime, Saint Nicholas performed many miracles - more than once he saved those drowning in the sea, brought them out of captivity and imprisonment in dungeons, healed people from illnesses and even resurrected them, fought for the truth and demanded the restoration of justice from those in power, taught with his life love and compassion . He lived a worthy life and, having reached a ripe old age, died peacefully.

Therefore, it is not surprising that this saint was revered at all times and among many peoples. However, the exact time when the celebration of the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was established is unknown. Most likely, this holiday was originally local in the Lycian Worlds of Asia Minor, where the Saint served as Archbishop, and in the homeland of his parents - in Patara. Then, at the time of the Crusades, this holiday could spread throughout the Nicene Empire and from there penetrate to Rus', where this saint had been revered since ancient times.

In addition, since the 9th century, Nicholas the Wonderworker was revered in Rus' as the heavenly patron of sovereign power - it was believed that he especially patronized Orthodox kings. It is also known that in the 13th century the tradition of celebrating his Nativity in the Russian Orthodox Church already existed, and in Veliky Novgorod there was even a monastery dedicated to the Nativity of St. Nicholas. There is also information that one of the surviving church services dedicated to this holiday was compiled during the Patriarchate of Nikon in 1657. However, during the reign of Catherine the Great, the church-wide celebration of the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Russia was abolished.

And so, several centuries later, the celebration was resumed, and in honor of the feast of the Nativity of St. Nicholas, a troparion and kontakion, known from ancient times in the liturgical life of the Russian Orthodox Church, were compiled.

Ancient legends claim that Nicholas performed various pious acts during his lifetime: he healed people from illnesses and even resurrected them, fought for the truth and demanded the restoration of justice from those in power, and also taught love and compassion. The saint lived a long life and died at a very old age.

There is no established date for the death of the saint. It is known that this happened in the period 345 - 351. And after death, his body remained incorrupt, which confirmed his holiness. The saint's relics were first placed in the cathedral church of the city of Myra, where he served as archbishop. Later, in 1087, the relics of Nicholas were transported to the city of Bari (Italy), where they are kept in the basilica of the saint.

How to celebrate the Christmas of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

On August 11, people visit churches where a sacred service is held glorifying the Birth of the Wonderworker. Christians pray in front of icons of St. Nicholas and light candles for health. If for some reason believers are unable to go to church on this day, they can pray to the saint at home.

On this special day, many believers donate money, things and food to orphanages, schools, boarding schools and low-income families. Good deeds help to get closer to the Lord and honor the memory of the holy saint.

On the Christmas of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, we must not forget about family. On such a significant day, it is necessary to be close to your family and friends in order to honor the memory and celebrate the Birth of the saint together.

What to pray to St. Nicholas on August 11

The Orthodox saint helps people in various matters: find love, pass exams successfully, find a job, increase income. The prayers offered to the saint have miraculous power.

On August 11, Orthodox believers pray for the fulfillment of desires and the achievement of goals. Those who suffer from illnesses can ask the saint for healing.

On the day of the Nativity of the Wonderworker, it is necessary to offer words of gratitude for all the good that he did for everyone. Thank him for all the deeds and miracles that he performed, repent and ask for forgiveness for your sins. On this special day, the saint will help everyone who sincerely repents of their misdeeds and wants to change their life for the better.

The Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker: what not to do

We have collected the main prohibitions for the Christmas of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
You cannot carry out work in the garden and vegetable garden, since the holiday of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is of great importance among the four holidays of the church calendar.
You cannot sew, knit or embroider.
You can’t swear or quarrel with loved ones.
You cannot clean the house or do laundry.
Spend the holiday in harmony with yourself, engage in spiritual development.

There is hardly a saint in the Orthodox Church who is more revered than St. Nicholas. The memory of the bishop who lived in ancient times has not faded for seventeen centuries and is widespread even among non-Christian peoples.

There is evidence that images of St. Nicholas were hidden by Muslim sailors, believing that the good old man would save their ships from storms.

Pagan shamans among the northern peoples, having no idea about the Christian faith, used the name of the Saint in spells against evil forces and diseases.

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Today carefully preserved by the Catholic Church. The holiday of Saint Nicholas, revered in the West, falls on day of the saint's death, December 19.

Starts from this day preparation for Christmas. But the saint received much greater fame on Russian soil.

In ancient Rus', Nicholas the Wonderworker was given the same honor as the Mother of God and the Lord. Therefore, it was here that a holiday dedicated to the saint’s birthday arose - his Christmas. This unique event for church tradition is still shrouded in the mystery of past centuries.

Life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker associated with lands now belonging to Turkey. Twelve centuries before the birth of Christ, a small state arose on the Mediterranean coast - Lycia, which became one of the centers of development of ancient culture.

Many events in Christian history are connected with this country. Not far from the present village of Gelemish (Antalya) there was ancient Patara, the city where St. Nicholas was born.

The ruins of the amphitheater and buildings still decorate the mountainous coastline.

Archaeological excavations are constantly being carried out here, each year adding to the picture surrounding the childhood of the great saint. By the time of his birth, Patara, although a small city, already had four Christian churches.

Saint's parents

The exact date of birth of the saint is unknown, according to ancient evidence dates back to approximately 260. In 1957, Italian anthropologists conducted an examination of the relics of St. Nicholas, thanks to which the currently accepted dates of his birth and death can be considered completely reliable.

The saint’s parents were of noble origin, but they shunned state power, believing that “one cannot help but get dirty by touching the resin,” as Patriarch Methodius of Constantinople wrote about them (9th century). The texts of the service for the Nativity of St. Nicholas indicate the names of his father and mother - Epiphanius and Nonna. However, this is an outdated bug. One of the compilers of the service confused the life of Nicholas the Wonderworker with the life of another Lycian bishop, also Nicholas from the city of Pinara. But since the new names did not reject the righteousness of the Wonderworker’s parents, the Church left them in the texts, believing that God accepts the prayers of believers regardless of the correct naming of the unknown saints.

Miracles

The childhood of great saints is always marked by God's special favor. So it was with St. Nicholas. The parents waited and prayed to God for a long time for the gift of a child. Ancient chronicles mention that the holy baby observed fast days, not tasting his mother's milk, and during baptism he stood in the font for three hours, unsupported by anyone. Even with his very birth, he showed a miracle - he healed his mother from illness. Anticipating the future glory of their son, his parents named him Nicholas, which in Greek means “conqueror of nations.”

Origin of the holiday

It should be remembered that the Church attaches greater importance to eternal, afterlife than to temporary, earthly life. For Christians, a birthday is a family holiday, and the day of death is celebrated by the relatives of the deceased year after year in the church with a memorial service, and memorial meals are held. Death is considered the beginning of eternal life. Therefore, the days of remembrance of saints in the church are most often established by the date of their “dormition” - physical death.

The Church considers events important for the whole world only birthdays of the Lord Himself, Mother of God And John the Baptist, the greatest of men. However, in the 12th century, Slavic manuscripts first mention the holiday Nativity of Nicholas the Ugodnik, which is evidence of the high veneration of the holy bishop by the newly baptized Slavic peoples. When the Russian Church gained independence from the Greek Church, religious processions began to be held in honor of this holiday, churches and monasteries were created.

It is not known exactly when the day of St. Nicholas of the Summer began to be celebrated in Rus'. Only its extreme antiquity has been proven. The origin of the “hazing” holiday can be explained by the tendency of unenlightened Russians to deify holy people. The name of the Saint became known in Rus' thanks to the Kyiv prince Askold, who was baptized with the name Nicholas even before the adoption of Christianity by all the people under Prince Vladimir. One of the first Christian churches, dedicated to St. Nicholas the Pleasant, was erected over his grave (located near Kyiv). Since then, the Saint began to be revered by the Russian people on a par with the Lord and the Mother of God. Foreigners who visited Ancient Rus' called him the “Russian god.”

Feasts of St. Nicholas on August 11

If the exact date of birth of the Saint is unknown, then why does the church holiday fall on August 11?

On this day (according to the old style - July 29) in Rus' there were three great events associated with the veneration of St. Nicholas:

Transfer of the Zaraisk Icon from Korsun to Ryazan (1225).
Transfer of the Velikoretsk Icon from Vyatka to Moscow (1555).
Bringing the Mozhaisk image of St. Nicholas to Rus' (1618).

The word “transfer” refers to significant events in church history associated with the appearances and movements of miraculous images. Usually the images were transferred from the places of acquisition or temporary storage to the temples built for them in the hands of priests, as part of a religious procession. Such religious processions became holidays for the population of those places through which the

The day the icon was placed in the temple was recorded in the chronicles and established as an annual commemoration.

It is the memory of the transfer of the Velikoretsk image of St. Nicholas to Moscow, which took place with the participation of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, that is placed in modern liturgical books for the day of August 11 in the new style. The history of this day notes that, just like at Christmas, at the end of July in Rus' festivities were held and “carols” were sung - spiritual songs dedicated to St. Nicholas.

All of the above events are attributed in the chronicles to July 29 (old style), “The Nativity of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.” Ancient church documents also mention other days of celebration - May 20, August 23 and 24, which indicates the widespread and ancient veneration of this event in Rus'.

However, the service for the Nativity of St. Nicholas on August 11 has not yet been included in the liturgical books. The reason for this is the non-canonical (not corresponding to church canons) origin of the holiday itself and the unreliability of the facts stated in the texts of the service.

At the end of the 19th century, when a thorough study of Byzantine documents telling about the birth of the saint was carried out, errors were revealed in the names of the parents and the dates of the event itself. Previously, the holiday was excluded from the circle of services by order of Catherine II, as not being included in the Greek calendars. In 2004, Patriarch Alexy gave his blessing to celebrate the Nativity of the Saint “at the request of the rectors of the churches.” But until now, not every church on August 11 can hear chants in honor of St. Nicholas, and the texts of prayers and troparions for the holiday can only be found in certain publications.

Iconographic images

The moment of the Nativity of the Saint can be seen on icons with “life stamps” - images of the main events from the life of the Saint. The most famous are the ancient, miraculous icons of St. Nicholas of Zaraisk, Solikamsk (located in the Epiphany Church in Solikamsk), Mozhaisk (in the St. Nicholas Church of the Holy Island on the Dnieper), Velikoretsk (Kirov).

Admirers of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker today can touch the ancient custom and visit places associated with the national Russian holiday:

Zaraysk(Moscow region), where annually on August 11th celebrations are held with a procession of the cross to the holy spring, dedicated to the Nativity of St. Nicholas the Pleasant and his miraculous icon of Zaraisk, known since the 13th century;
Moscow, the Church of the Nativity of St. Nicholas (Vagankovskaya St., 3), where a large particle of the saint’s relics has been kept since 2012, and the Church of St. Alexis on Rogozhskaya Sloboda with the St. Nicholas chapel;
Novgorod, where in ancient times there was a monastery of the Nativity of St. Nicholas, and now the day of August 11 is celebrated in churches in the city and villages dedicated to the Saint;
Kirov, Velikoretsk religious procession (150 km), which has been held with the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas the Pleasant continuously for about 600 years. The event is dedicated to the Nativity of the Saint, but is held by the Russian Orthodox Church on June 3-8, and by the Old Believers, who most revere this holiday, on August 9-13;
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, where the Chapel of the Nativity of St. Nicholas was built, for his miraculous icon;
Anadyr, in the port of which a monument to St. Nicholas was erected, dedicated to the resumption of the celebration of his Christmas. Here, on the easternmost tip of Eurasia, the first Divine Divine Day on the continent is performed daily.

Today, this wonderful Holiday, deeply revered by our ancestors, is just beginning to return to the consciousness of Orthodox Rus'. Therefore, it is natural that for the majority of even church people, August 11 is in no way associated with the memory of the great saint of God. Even for scientists, the holiday of Christmas is the most mysterious of all church memories associated with the name of the saint. It is not known exactly when and where this holiday was first established. Was it celebrated in Byzantium or does it belong to the list of Russian memories? What “status” did it have among other commemorations of the church year? This holiday is not found in any modern Local Orthodox Church. Today, the Nativity of St. Nicholas is an exclusively Russian church tradition, which, however, has ancient historical roots (known already from the 12th-13th centuries). It was the absence of the holiday in the monthly calendars of other Orthodox Churches that most likely became the reason for the abolition of its celebration in the Russian Church during the reign of Catherine II.

However, if we turn to the liturgical texts of the Nativity of St. Nicholas, we will see that the event celebrated in them takes on a universal scale:

Fragment of a 15th century Cretan icon

This universal scale of the birth of a righteous man, even one as revered and dearly loved as Nicholas the Wonderworker, can indeed cause bewilderment. Moreover, in the hymns in honor of the saint one can notice clear parallels with the glorification of the Mother of God. “Today, fertile Nona gives birth to God’s chosen child in the Dwelling Place of all, the King and Creator of Christ God...” is sung in one of the stichera of the holiday. This is a paraphrase from the service of the Nativity of the Theotokos: “Today the barren Anna gives birth to the Mother of God, chosen from all generations to be the Dwelling Place of all the King and Creator of Christ God...” Also with the line: “This is a day of joy, rejoice, people...” (option: “This is the day of the Lord, rejoice, people...”) from the following of St. Nicholas, the hymns begin, repeated several times in the service of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

“Worldwide joy has come to us from the righteous, from Theophan and Nona...” continues to be heard even in the most hidden corner of the temple. “Come, all idle lovers, let us praise the honest birth of St. Nicholas of God...” - the heavenly forces serving with the priests call upon everyone standing in the house of the Heavenly Father.

The wondrous feast of the Nativity of St. Nicholas reveals to us the greatness of the gift of Grace that the Savior bestows on everyone who comes to Him with a pure heart. This is an amazing hymn of the unity of man with God, the glorification of the Son of God, who accomplished the Redemption of the human race. Everything here reminds us of God’s closeness to man. All is filled with sweet promises of true joy, glory and eternal life for those who will tirelessly strengthen their determination to follow Christ.

Roman Savchuk