Monthly Archives: December 2009

Dining With the Saints

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La Vigilia

 Christmas Eve, La Vigilia (the vigil), as it’s called in Italy, is traditionally a meatless meal, eaten late in the evening. But just because it lacks a big lamb or pork centerpiece doesn’t mean it skimps on quality or quantity. To the contrary. This is a meal of many fish dishes and usually takes hours to eat, each dish brought to the table separately, in ceremonial fashion. For Italian-Americans seven fish dishes are usually the amount prepared, but this seems to be more an American than a purely Italian tradition.  People debate what the number symbolizes, except that it most likely refers to the seven sacraments. In Italy, especially in the South, nine, eleven, or thirteen fish dishes are more the norm and they have specific religious symbolism. Nine represents the Holy Trinity times three. The number thirteen stands for the twelve Apostles plus Jesus, but the preparation of eleven seafood dishes seem to stand for the twelve Apostles minus Judas (very popular in Sicily for some reason).

 My New York Italian family usually prepared three, I believe because it was relatively easy to prepare and get them out to the table without too much kitchen hysteria. Usually we started off with some type of cold seafood salad that could include calamari or scungilli, then on to linguine with clam sauce, and after that often we’d eat a big platter of giant broiled shrimp with garlic and lemon. Other traditional dishes can involve octopus, sea urchin, oysters, baccala, eel, and whole sea bass.

 My mother’s father always prepared this beautiful pasta with lobster. I never tasted his version since he died young, but I’ve recreated it from my mother’s description. It’s really lovely.

 Merry Christmas to you.

Spaghetti with Lobster, Tomato, and Cognac

 

(Serves 4 as a main course)

 

3 small lobsters (about 1 1/2 pounds each)

 Extra-virgin olive oil

 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

 2 shallots, cut into small dice

 3 large thyme sprigs, the leaves chopped

 1 small inner celery stalk, cut into small dice, plus the leaves, chopped

 Salt

 A generous pinch of sugar

 About 8 big scrapings of nutmeg

 A generous pinch of Aleppo pepper (or a smaller pinch of cayenne)

 1/3 cup cognac or brandy

 1 35-ounce can high quality, Italian plum tomatoes, with the juice, well chopped

 1 pound spaghetti (Latini is the brand I always use)

 A dozen basil leaves, lightly chopped, plus a few whole sprigs for garnish

For the best flavor and texture, the lobster for this dish  should be sautéed raw. This means either hacking the things up alive (something I no longer have the stomach for) or, my new solution, having your fish seller kill them for you. You just have to make sure to cook them the same day. Once you get your lobsters home, you’ll need to cut them into pieces. Get a sharp, heavy knife or a cleaver and start by cutting the lobsters in half horizontally through the top of the shell. Remove the head sac, located on either side of the top of the shell. Now separate the tail sections from the head sections. Remove the claws and front legs in one piece, and give the claws a swift whack with the back of your knife or cleaver to crack them. You’ll notice a long, dark intestinal tract running along the top of one of the tail sections; pull that out. Remove the tomalley, and the roe if you find any, and place in a small bowl, mashing it up a bit.

 If you don’t want to bother with all this, just have your  fish seller cut up your lobsters for you.

 Set up a large pot of pasta cooking water over high heat.

 In a medium saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the butter over medium heat. Add the shallots, celery and leaves, thyme, a pinch of sugar, salt, Aleppo or cayenne, and nutmeg,  and sauté until soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add half of the cognac and let it bubble until almost dry. Add the tomatoes and a splash of water and simmer, uncovered, for about 8 minutes.

 In a very large sauté skillet (or two smaller ones), heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat (a little more if you’re using two skillets). When hot, add the lobster pieces, shell side down, and sauté until they turn pink, about 4 minutes. Turn the pieces over and sauté for a minute on the other side. Now add the remaining cognac and let it bubble away. Add the tomato sauce and the tomalley and roe if you have it, and let everything simmer, uncovered, until the  lobster is just tender, about 5 minutes. The sauce will be a bit loose. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and a pinch of Aleppo or cayenne, if desired (this is not meant to be a full-on Fra Diavolo hot sauce. You really want to a hint of heat). Add the basil.

 While the lobster is simmering, add a generous amount of salt to the boiling pasta water and drop the spaghetti into the pot. Cook until al dente. Drain the spaghetti, leaving a little water clinging to it, and pour it onto a very large serving platter. Drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil and give it a toss. Pour the lobster sauce over the top and garish with the basil sprigs. Serve right away.

Dining With the Saints is written by chef Erica DeMane.  EricaDeMane.com

Image: Detail from a fresco of The Nativity (1303-1305) by Giotto di Bondone located in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.

Novenas for December

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SAINT LUCY

 283 – 304

Feast Day: December 13

Patronage: Syracuse, the blind, cutlers, electricians, glaziers, gondoliers, oculists, peasants, writers

Invoked Against: dysentery, epidemics, eye disease, hemorrhages, throat ailments, for clarity

Symbols: holding her eyes on a dish, martyrs palms, sword, oxen, cord

 “Those who live chaste lives are temples of the holy spirit.”

            Saint Lucy 304AD

             Saint Lucy was a privileged young woman who chose a state of enlightenment over the prosperous, respectable life she was expected to lead in Roman society. One of the early virgin martyrs, her quiet but steadfast rebellion against the civil authorities earned her an excruciating death that became a triumphant example of everlasting life, hastening the overthrow of the Emperor and the legalization of Christianity.   

            Born in Siracusa, Sicily, Lucy was a young Christian  woman of Greek ancestry.  She held a deep spiritual belief that one must remain pure to be a true conduit of the Holy Spirit. Lucy secretly vowed to remain a virgin, even while her widowed mother arranged her marriage to a wealthy pagan nobleman. At this time in history, Christianity was looked upon as a threat by the Roman Emperor. So many soldiers in the Empire had converted, that officials feared they would follow the tenets of Christ over their military leaders. The state insisted that it was a man’s duty to serve his nation militarily and a woman’s duty to marry and bear children. When a girl refused to do this, she was considered a traitor to the empire. Therefore, consecrating one’s virginity to Christ, was more of a bold and revolutionary stance against the state than a  private act of devotion.

            Lucy’s mother suffered ceaseless bleeding from a uterine hemorrhage.  Her daughter insisted they make a healing pilgrimage to the tomb of the virgin martyr Saint Agatha in Catania some 50 miles away. Agatha had become the patron of Catania after her veil stopped the deadly flow of Mount Etna’s lava from entering the town. She was credited with so many miracles since her martyrdom 35 years prior, that Christians, Jews and pagans alike were drawn to her tomb to invoke her aid. Lucy and her mother spent the night in prayer outside of the tomb. Agatha visited Lucy in a dream, telling her, “You have no need to invoke me, for your faith has already cured your mother. One day you will be known as the patron of your own city.” As the day dawned, Lucy found her mother completely healed. When she confessed  her secret vow of virginity, her mother agreed not to force her into marriage.

             In 303 the Emperor Diocletian launched the most extensive and vicious anti-Christian campaign throughout the Roman Empire. This was the political atmosphere that Lucy and her mother returned home to. Since she was no longer in need of a dowry, Lucy encouraged her mother to divest herself of all the investments she had made for her daughter’s future and give the money to the poor. Lucy’s fiancé, outraged to learn that his engagement was broken, denounced her to the governor of Siracusa. Brought before this official, Lucy asked, “Why would that man want to marry me?” When the governor quipped, “Perhaps it is your lovely eyes,” Lucy ripped out her eyeballs and told him to send them to her former fiance. Her eyesight was miraculously restored the next day and the governor demanded why she so adamantly refused to marry. Lucy replied, “Those who live chaste lives are the temples of the Holy Spirit.”

            The governor then told her that he would have her taken to a brothel and repeatedly raped until she “lost the Holy Spirit.” Soldiers came to carry her off but could not move her. A thousand men were called in, to no avail. Lucy would not budge. Nor could a team of oxen drag her away.  Burning pitch was poured on her skin but nothing would break her will. Upon predicting the fall of the Emperor, Lucy was fatally stabbed in the throat.  True to her prophecy, the Emperor fell within the year and Christianity was legalized in Rome under Constantine nine years later.  

            Immediately after her death, public opinion was so swayed by Lucy’s fate that it was considered a great honor for other Christians to be buried in the catacombs of Siracusa near her. In the sixth century, the Acts of the Virgin Martyrs were given great recognition by ecclesiastical writers and Lucy’s name was entered in the Canon of the Mass. In art, she is sometimes portrayed in the company of Saints Agatha, Agnes of Rome, Barbara, Thecla and Catherine of Alexandria. All of them, legendary young girls defiant and fearless in the face of death.

            The people of her native city have always honored Lucy and been protective of her. In the ninth century when Siracusa fell into Muslim hands, they hid Lucy’s remains for hundreds of years until 1040 when the Byzantine army drove out the Saracens. In gratitude for their liberation, they sent their most precious possession, her body,  to Constantinople as a  gift for the Empress Theodora. Many of her relics were then distributed throughout Europe which greatly expanded the range of her cult.  In 1204, Venetian Crusaders conquered Constantinople and took Lucy’s remains back to Venice where they were installed in a church named for her. This original church was near the place where the gondolas were parked. The song “Santa Lucia” became famous among gondoliers looking forward to the end of their night’s work. When the church was torn down to make way for the new train station, the station was named for Saint Lucy and her remains were interred in the nearby Church of Saint Jeremiah.

            The name “Lucy” means light. According to the Julian calendar, her feast day, December 13 was considered the shortest day of the year. Celebrations combining Lucy’s feast day with the winter solstice began in Sicily and spread throughout Europe. It was said that the “longest of nights and the shortest of days belong to Saint Lucy”. Today, she is most celebrated in Sweden and other Scandinavian nations because when the Swedes converted to Christianity in the 11th Century, they could most easily relate to a Saint who would gradually bring more light each day as the sun changed its course.  Saint Lucy’s day is a major holiday in that part of the world, celebrated with torchlight processions of crowned girls in white dresses. With the change to the Gregorian calendar in the 1300’s, and the shifting of the solstice to ten days later, Lucy’s feast became synonymous with the start of the Christmas season. She is associated with gifts to children because of her part in curing an eye epidemic that was blinding children in the 13th century. When local families went on a barefoot pilgrimage to her tomb invoking her aid, she sent them home, curing the children and telling them that they would find gifts in their shoes. It became a common Christmas custom in many parts of Europe to celebrate the saint’s feast by putting  gifts in children’s shoes. In 1582 Saint Lucy was credited with ending a famine in Sicily by sending three grain loaded ships to its starving residents. The people were so hungry that they boiled and ate the grain without grinding it into flour.  To this day, Sicilians do not eat anything made with flour on Saint Lucy’s day and there are a host of traditional foods and desserts created specifically for her feast day.                  

            Lucy is a popular subject for artists, she is frequently depicted calmly holding her eyeballs on a dish, referencing her story. Because of this, she is the patron of the blind and all trades relating to the eyes. Eye strain is a common problem for writers, therefore she is their patron. Because of the success of her mother’s healing she is invoked against hemorrhage. Since she was stabbed in the throat she protects against throat ailments and cutlers because she was killed by a knife. As a true patron of her city, Syracuse, she was historically called upon to help in all epidemics, hence her aid against dysentery. Peasants claim her patronage because they depend on oxen who play a part in her story. Her final resting place is Venice so she is the patron of that city’s glassmakers and gondoliers.

Prayer to Saint Lucy of Syracuse

                                             Saint Lucy, your beautiful name signifies light.

                                        By the light of faith which God bestowed upon you,

                             Increase and preserve this light in my soul so that I may avoid evil,

                                           Be zealous in the performance of good works,

                        and abhor nothing as much as the blindness and darkness of evil and sin.

                                                       By your intercession with God,

                                           obtain for me perfect vision for my bodily eyes

                                 and the grace to use them for God’s greater honor and glory

                                                         and the salvation of all men.

                                                         Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr,

                                               Hear my prayers and obtain my petitions.

(mention your request here)

                                                                          Amen

Say this novena times in a row for nine days in a row.

Excerpted from the book, “Saints:Ancient and Modern” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua

 Painting of Saint Lucy by: Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato  1609 – 1685

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OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

             Our Lady of Guadalupe represents one of the most kindly and motherly aspects of Mary. In this novena she is begging us to appeal to her for comfort. Our Lady of Guadalupe should be invoked whenever we need a non-judgemental force of love in our lives. Just ten years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, this apparition occurred on the hill where a temple to the Aztec corn and earth goddess, Tonantzin, once stood. The name Tonantzin means “Our Mother”, and this is exactly how Mary asks the people of Mexico to perceive her. It seems she did not appear to give warnings or dire predictions to humanity, but rather to show herself as a merciful mother figure, ready to assist in any request. The only visitation of Mary officially recognized by the Church on the North American continent, it is an example of how the Madonna changes her image to resemble the race and culture of the people to whom she appears.

             On December 9, 1531, a Mexican-Indian peasant named Juan Diego was walking through the countryside of what is now Mexico City. From the top of a hill a beautiful woman called out to him, asking, “Am I not your mother?” She then told him she was Mary, Mother of God, and that she would like a church to be built upon the ground where she stood. She sent him off to Bishop Zumarraga to make this request. The bishop, upon hearing Juan’s story, instructed him to obtain a sign to prove that this was truly an apparition of Mary. Juan, returning to the site, found the woman waiting for him. Again she told him that she urgently desired a church to be built to bear witness to her love, compassion, help and protection. She wanted the world to know that she was a merciful mother to all and desired everyone to trust in her and invoke her in times of need. She instructed Juan to gather roses among the nearby rocks for the bishop. Since it was winter, not a season when roses bloomed, he was surprised to find them growing where she told him to look. After gathering the roses in his peasant’s cloak, he presented them to Mary, who arranged them; then he took them back to the bishop. As Juan unwrapped his cloak, and the roses fell out, the bishop was stunned. The roses uncovered an elaborate portrait of the Virgin Mary imprinted on the cloak.

             This image still exists and is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year. A basilica in Mexico City was erected to house it, thereby fulfilling the Virgin’s request for a church. This images offers a very different view of Mary; her features are Mexican-Indian, there are rays of light streaming out from her entire body, and the figure is set among the sun, moon and stars.

             Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron of Mexico, and her feast is honored by the people of that country with an almost political fervor. In keeping with her own requests, all people of the world should feel free to invoke her for help in solving any types of problems, big or small.

 Feast Day: December 12

 Patron of: Mexico, The Americas

 Invoked for: Motherly Comfort

Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe

 

Our lady of Guadalupe, according to your message in Mexico, I venerate you as the Virgin Mother of the true God for whom we live, the Creator of all the world, maker of heaven and earth. In spirit I kneel before your most holy image which you miraculously imprinted upon the cloak of the Indian Juan Diego, and with the faith of the countless numbers of pilgrims who visit your shrine, I beg you for this favor: (mention your request).

Remember, O immaculate Virgin, the words you spoke to your devout client: “I am a merciful mother to you and to all your people who love me and trust in me and invoke my help. I listen to their lamentations and solace all their sorrows and sufferings.” I beg you to be a merciful mother to me, because I sincerely love you and trust in you and invoke your help. I entreat you, our Lady of Guadalupe, to grant my request, if this be the will of God, in order that I may bear witness to your love, your compassion, your help and protection. Do not forsake me in my needs.

(Recite “Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us” and Hail Mary three times).

Say this novena nine times in a row for nine days in a row.

Excerpted from the book: “Novena: The Power of Prayer” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua

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OUR LADY OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

             The miraculous medal is a physical manifestation of the gift of grace that exudes externally from the Virgin Mary. It was originally called the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, but so many miracles were reported by those wearing it that the name was changed. A Miraculous Medal is a common gift for those receiving the sacraments of baptism, communion or confirmation. The Virgin Mary herself declared that those who wear this medal around their necks will be the recipients of tremendous graces. It is thought that the medal will keep a soul from sinking into iniquity and lead one to a purer life. The Virgin Mary presented the Miraculous Medal to mankind as a gift and a token reminder that she is always ready to offer assistance.

             In 1830, one of the few apparitions of Mary to be sanctioned by the church occurred in the Parisian chapel of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. In the first of these visions, a novice nun named Catherine Laboure was awakened at 11:30 PM by a “shining child” who led her to the chapel, where she found the Blessed Mother. Speaking with her for two hours, the Blessed Mother told Catherine she had a very difficult task ahead of her. Four months later, on November 27, Catherine experienced another vision in the chapel. She saw a three-dimensional tableau of Mary standing on a white globe with dazzling rays of light streaming from her fingers, and she heard a voice say, “These are the symbols of the graces I shed upon those who ask for them.” A frame formed around the Blessed Mother, and within it was written in gold letters, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for those who have recourse to you.” The voice then told her, “Have a medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces, they should wear it around the neck.” The tableau turned and on the reverse side was a large M with a bar through it and a cross over it.  Beneath this M were the hearts of Jesus and Mary, one crowned with thorns, the other pierced with a sword. This vision continued to appear to Saint Catherine several more times until September of 1831. Wishing to remain anonymous, she related these events only to her confessor, Monsignor Aladel. He was given permission by the archbishop of Paris to have the medal struck. The first fifteen hundred were issued in June of 1832, and almost instantaneously a wide variety of healings, changes of heart, and miraculous events were reported by those wearing the medal. However, Saint Catherine Laboure herself could not be induced to appear at any of the canonical hearings investigating the apparitions, Eventually, this visit by the Virgin Mary was sanctified on the evidence of the miraculous effects of the medals. Saint Catherine Laboure only revealed herself as the recipient of this vision eight months before her death in 1876. This came as quite a surprise, as she was thought by her superiors to be almost apathetic regarding her faith. She was canonized in 1947.

             Because the Miraculous Medal commemorates that Mary was conceived without original sin, remaining in this pure state throughout her earthly life. The feast day honoring this vision is the same day as the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8.

 Feast Day: December 8

 Invoked for: Miracles, Sanctity

 

Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

 

Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ and out Mother, penetrated with the most lively confidence in your all-powerful and never-failing intercession, manifested so often through the Miraculous Medal, we your loving and trusting children implore you to obtain for us the graces and favors we ask during this novena, if they be beneficial to our immortal souls and the souls for which we pray.

(Mention your request)

You know, Mary, how often our souls have been the sanctuaries of your Son, who hates iniquity. Obtain for us, then, a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone, so that our every thought, word, and deed may tend to his greater glory.

 Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at length attain to that blessed abode where you are the Queen of Angels and of People. Amen

 Say this novena nine times in a row for nine days in a row.

Excerpted from the book “Novena: The Power of Prayer” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua

Image: “The Immaculate Conception” by Tiepolo

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SAINT NICHOLAS OF MYRA AND OF BARI

270-345

Feast Day: December 6

“The West as the East acclaims and glorifies him. Wherever there are people, in the country and the town, in the villages, in the isles, in the furthest parts of the earth, his name is revered and churches are built in his honor. All Christians young and old, men and women, boys and girls, reverence his memory and call upon his protection. And his favors, which know no limit of time and continue from age to age, are poured out all over the earth; the Scythians know them, as do the Indians and the barbarians, the Africans as well as the Italians.” –Anonymous, Greece, tenth century A.D.

       In the East, Saint Nicholas of Myra is one of the most revered saints, so much so that he is invoked in the Eastern Orthodox Mass. In the West, he has come to symbolize the celebration of Christmas in the form of a character named Santa Claus, or St. Nick. The traditions of Christmas reflect his life of wonders. Nicholas was born in Patara on the Western coast of present day Turkey. His wealthy parents died when he was very young, leaving their shy, devout son a fortune. His compassion for the poor led him to anonymously distribute his wealth, as in the case of his neighbor who was so desperate that he was considering selling his three daughters into prostitution. Nicholas secretly went to the man’s house on three consecutive nights, throwing in a bag of gold coins to provide a dowry for each girl. It is said that the three bags of gold landed in stockings hung to dry over the fire.  We hang stockings on Christmas Eve to remind ourselves of this compassionate act.

            Compassion and care for others, regardless of their circumstances, were prevailing traits throughout Saint Nicholas’s life. On several occasions he raised people from the dead, including three young boys who had been kidnapped and murdered by a butcher. They had been dismembered and hidden in a barrel of brine.  When Nicholas learned of their fate through a dream, he miraculously raised three whole boys from the barrel and restored them to life. The butcher confessed and repented for his crime. Because of this Saint Nicholas is the patron of butchers, barrel makers and murderers. In another, a man swore on an altar of Saint Nicholas that he had repaid a debt owed to a moneylender. The court believed his oath, but on the man’s way home, he was killed in an accident on the road–the money he owed spilling out from his cane where he had hidden it. Instead of picking up the money which was rightfully his, the moneylender invoked Saint Nicholas to bring the man back to life. When the man miraculously got up from the road, the moneylender picked up his coins and became a Christian convert while the liar repented for trying to evade the payment of the loan.

            In his own lifetime Nicholas was revered as a Saint, and indeed, received the bishophric of Myra under supernatural circumstance. The city’s bishop had died suddenly, and a neighboring bishop was told in a dream to make the first man who entered the church the new bishop. As fate would have it, Nicholas was visiting the city and upon his entrance at dawn, he was welcomed and consecrated as bishop of Myra. He accepted his office with grace and humility, standing fast against the persecutions of Diocletian, the Roman Emperor. Nicholas was said to be present at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., where he defended the teaching of the Holy Trinity against Arius, who argued against the divinity of Christ. For his holy stance, he was thrown into prison; however, Christ and the Virgin Mary appeared to him in the prison and restored his robes and holy office. Once free he single handedly brought down the great Temple of Diana. According to legend, screaming demons fled as the building fell. Today, the day once celebrated as Diana’s birthday, December 6th, is the feast day of Saint Nicholas.

            Since Myra is on the coast, there are many tales of Nicholas helping sailors at sea. He would appear to them in dreams, advising them how to steer through rough passages. “May Saint Nicholas hold the tiller,” became a common saying among sailors on the Aegean and Ionian seas. These sailors spread tales of his wonderworking in every port they entered and hundreds of seaport chapels sprung up in his name.

In these many countries customs were established to honor Saint Nicholas’s practice of anonymous generosity. The French would leave gifts and candy to poor children on December 5th, Saint Nicholas’ Eve, a practice that spread to all of Western Europe. The cult of Saint Nicholas was particularly embraced in the Netherlands. After the Reformation, when honoring saints became suspect, Martin Luther moved the customary celebration of Saint Nicholas’ Day to December 25th and changed it to a celebration of the birth of Christ. However, Saint Nicholas lived on in the common people in the guise of Sinta Klaus (Saint ‘Claus). The first Dutch settlers in New York brought their traditional celebration of Saint Nicholas with them. However, it was the German immigrants in Pennsylvania who were the first to make Christmas a major celebration. The image of Saint Nicholas driving a sled with reindeer was taken from the German myths of the gods. Odin was said to fly through the heavens the same way. In the early 1800s, visual depictions of Saint Nicholas evolved from the traditional Eastern bishop with a beard to the more modern jolly Dutch burgher. With the publication in 1823 of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“The Night Before Christmas”) Saint Nicholas had completed his journey from the wonderworking Fourth Century saint to our present day popular figure of Santa Claus.        

Iconography:

            Since Saint Nicholas was a defender of the Holy Trinity, tales of his wonderworking frequently feature three individuals or three objects: rescuing his neighbor’s three daughters with three bags of gold (Christmas stockings, oranges or chocolate covered gold coins, the three gold balls of the pawnbroker symbolize the bags of gold). Candy canes are symbols of Saint Nicholas bishop’s staff. In art, Saint Nicholas is always depicted bearded with a bishop’s hat and staff, usually with three objects or three figures taken from the numerous tales of his wonderworking.

 Patron of: Russia, Greece, Bari, Italy, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Apulia, Apothecaries, Bakers, Barrel makers, Boatmen, Children, Dock workers, Thieves, Murderers, Pawnbrokers, Wine Venders, Pharmacists, Butchers, Grain Venders, the wrongfully accused, Paupers

Invoked for: protection against judicial error, happy marriages blessed with children

Symbols: Miter, Bishop’s staff, 3 Gold Balls, 3 Bags of Money, Anchor, Ship

Eastern Orthodox Saint Nicholas Prayer

Almighty God, who in your love gave to your servant Nicholas of Myra a perpetual name for deeds of kindness on land and sea:

Grant, we pray, that your Church may never cease to

work for the happiness of children,

the safety of sailors,

the relief of the poor,

and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt

or grief;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

One God, for ever and ever.

Amen

Excerpted from the book: “Saints: Ancient and Modern” by Barbara Calamari and Sandra DiPasqua

Image: Ukrainian prayer card celebrating Saint Nicholas as the Patron Saint of Children