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The most popular non-Biblical saint in Christendom, he is the patron of children, sailors, merchants, bankers, thieves, scholars, Greece, Sicily, Russia, and New York City. Traditionally, he is identified as a fourth-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. His relics were stolen from Myra in the Middle Ages and removed to Bari, Italy. In southern Italy in the early eighteenth century, wives wishing to get rid of their husbands used vials of poison inscribed "Manna of Saint Nicholas of Bari." Saint Nicholas legends have been said to represent sexual dream symbolism. The English in colonial New York adopted from the Dutch the now unrecognizable saint, calling him Santa Claus, a contradiction of the Dutch Saint Nicholas, and moved St. Nicholas's feast day, December 6, to the English gift holiday, Christmas. Fat and jolly are recently acquired characteristics. The secular symbol of Christmas has changed often and drastically over the years. What a joy it is to know the real symbol of Christmas reigns preeminently and unchanging for all eternity!
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