ST. NICOLAS AND ARTEMIS.
BY EUGENE ANICHKOF.
In the Middle Ages the belief in St. Nicolas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, as a patron of sailors was widely spread. Many churches were built in his honour on the sea-shore.[1] Among his numerous miracles, many were supposed to have been worked at sea. It is, for example, related that a merchant, before embarking on a ship, went to the church of St. Nicolas at Constantinople, and there prayed eagerly. When he was at sea the weather suddenly became very rough, and he was threatened with great danger. But St. Nicolas did not forget the prayers addressed to him, and abated the storm.[2] Many similar miracles could be added.[3]
The old French romance of St. Nicolas, by Wace, relates an analogous miracle. Once a ship was in great danger—
"Donc comencent tuit a crier,
Deu e ses sainz a reclamier.
Mult se cleiment cheitif e las
Sovent crient: seint Nicholas,
Socour nus, seint Nicholas sire,
Se tiels es cum oomes dire!
A tant uns hom lor aparut
Qui en la nief od els estut,
Et itant at a els parlie;
Io sui que m'avez appelé
Isnel le pas l'orez cessa
E saint Nicholas s'en ala."[4]
- ↑ Hampson, Medii aevi Kalendarium. London, 1841, vol. i, p. 69.
- ↑ A Slavovic Prologue. St. Petersburg, 1817.
- ↑ For other Slavonic texts translated from Greek, see Arch. Leonid., Posmertnya chudesa sv. Nikolaia, Pamiatniki Drevnei Pismennosti, 1888, pp. 2 and 33; and my study, Mikola the Divine {Ugodnik) and St. Nikolas, in the Memoirs of the Society of Modern Philology, St. Petersburg, 1892, pp. 17 and 32. Compare Assemani Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae, Romae, 175 5) v, p. 420.
- ↑ Maistre Wace's St. Nicolas herausg. v. Dr. Delius. Bonn, 1850, 250-260; compare 804-924.
