St Nicholas and the Empty Granary
The saintly Bishop helped the captain of a merchant ship to cut through the red tape, and save his town from starvation.
333
The saintly Bishop helped the captain of a merchant ship to cut through the red tape, and save his town from starvation.
333
This post is number 3 in the series Miracles of Nicholas
St Nicholas (d. 343) was Bishop of Myra, a town in the Roman Province of Lycia, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). According to his 9th-century biographer, Michael, one miracle in particular gained him a reputation in the Imperial capital itself.
IN 333, Lycia suffered one of the worst famines anyone could remember.* It was especially bad in Myra, where St Nicholas was bishop, and the granary at the port of Andriake, built by the Emperor Hadrian, stood empty.
Grain ships would often sail past Myra on their way from Alexandria to Constantinople, and one day a captain put into Andriake.* Nicholas went to beg a little wheat, but the captain shook his head. The cargo was government property, measured to the last grain, and must be accounted for.
However, Nicholas persuaded him to spare two hundred gallons from each ship, promising the captain would not lose by it.*
When the ships reached Constantinople, the cargo was checked against the manifest. The captain, bracing himself for uncomfortable questions, was astonished to hear the Treasury man declare ‘That’s fine. It’s all here.’
Meanwhile, the grain Nicholas stored in Hadrian’s granary lasted for two whole years, and there was enough to sow in the fields too.
Next in series: St Nicholas Scotches a Rumour
Two famines are known, in 311-312, and again in 333. Michael says the ships were bound for Constantinople, founded in 330, so 333 seems to be the right date.
Another Alexandrian ship, bound for Italy, was boarded at Andriake by St Paul and his companions. See Acts 27:5-6.
Michael gives the amount as 100 measures, where a measure is the Roman modius. A modius was a dry measure equivalent to roughly 2 gallons, or an imperial peck. For grain, 200 gallons works out to approximately two thirds of an imperial ton in weight. Michael’s account does not say how many ships there were.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What favour did Nicholas ask of the ships’ captain?
To let starving Myra have some grain.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
The people of Myra were starving. A grain ship came into port. Nicholas asked the captain for grain.