St Nicholas and the Golden Dowry
Nicholas used his inheritance to help three vulnerable girls escape a life of exploitation.
300-320
Roman Empire 27 BC - AD 1453
Nicholas used his inheritance to help three vulnerable girls escape a life of exploitation.
300-320
Roman Empire 27 BC - AD 1453
This post is number 1 in the series Miracles of Nicholas
St Nicholas (d. 330) came from Patara in Lycia, now in south east Turkey. The following story is the basis of the ‘Santa Claus’ legend, but there is nothing whatever improbable about it; on the contrary, it fits perfectly with the society and values of pagan Rome at the time.
IN Nicholas’s hometown of Patara there lived a man who had once been very wealthy, but had now fallen into desperate poverty.
He had three daughters, but they had already had to move away to find work, and as they were all remarkably beautiful he was increasingly anxious that a brothel was their most likely fate.
When he heard of this, Nicholas, who had inherited his own parents’ considerable property, slipped a purse filled with gold coins into the dingy room where the man now lived.
The grateful father used it to see his eldest daughter safely married, and Nicholas, satisfied of the man’s good intentions, returned the next night with another purse of gold, and again the next.
On the third night, the girls’ father lay in wait to see who his mysterious benefactor was. But Nicholas, caught in his act of secret charity, waved away all thanks. ‘Tell no one about this’ he urged him ‘so long as I live’.
Next in series: St Nicholas and the Luckless Sailor