Saint Nicholas was a Greek Bishop of Myra (now part of modern-day Turkey) in the fourth century. Nicholas was born to wealthy parents who died in an epidemic while he was still young. A devout Christian, he gave his inheritance to the poor and needy, gaining a reputation for secret gift-giving. 

One of the legends surrounding Saint Nicholas concerns three sisters. Their father was so poor that he was unable to pay any dowry for their marriage. Without any prospect of finding husbands, this meant the sisters may have been forced into prostitution. Nicholas wanted to help the family, but didn’t want to attract any attention to himself, so he went to their house one night and threw three purses filled with gold coins through the window. 

In one version of the story, one of the sisters had hung her stockings over the fireplace to dry after washing and one bag of gold fell into the stocking. 

Another legend which seems to have a surprising number of variations, involves three children who have been killed and put in barrel with the intention of being eaten, are resurrected by Saint Nicholas. Other legends involved his help is assisting sailors. 

Nicholas died on December 6th 343AD in Myra and following his death, Nicholas gained sainthood and because of the legends associated with him, he became the patron saint of Children and Sailors. 

As Saint Nicholas is also the patron saint of sailors, many churches dedicated to him are intentionally built so they can be seen from the coast as landmarks. 

In 1087, most of his relics (bones) were taken to Bari, Italy. This is why he is sometimes known as Nikolaos of Bari. His remaining bones were taken to Venice in 1100 by Venetian sailors during the first crusade.