St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of seafarers as well as children and other groups. He was Bishop of Myra, a town in what is now southwest Turkey, circa 342. His feast day is December 6.

From For All the Saints: prayers and readings for Saints’ days; compiled by Stephen Reynolds. ed. p. 366.

Another story tells how a company of seafarers were caught in a storm off the coast of Asia Minor. The waves were swamping their ship, and the mariners were nearly at their wits’ end when they remembered what they had heard about the Bishop of Myra. Though he was still alive, the sailors cried out his name and implored his help. The legend says that Nicholas himself suddenly appeared in the rigging of their ship and calmed the storm, so that the ship and all who were in it came safely to port.

St. Nicholas’ Day is the anniversary of the founding of the Mission to Seafarers in the Port of Thunder Bay. On December 6, 1961, St. Nicolas’ Day, a decision was made to establish a station of the Missions to Seamen; see A Brief History of the Mission to Seafarers in Thunder Bay.