Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/116

 108 ST. NICOLAS AND ARTEMIS.

BY EUGENE ANICHKOF.

In the Middle Ages the belief in St. Nicolas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, as a patron of sailors was widely spread. Many churches were built in his honour on the sea-shore. Among his numerous miracles, many were supposed to have been worked at sea. It is, for example, related that a merchant, before embarking on a ship, went to the church of St. Nicolas at Constantinople, and there prayed eagerly. When he was at sea the weather suddenly became very rough, and he was threatened with great danger. But St. Nicolas did not forget the prayers addressed to him, and abated the storm. Many similar miracles could be added.

The old French romance of St. Nicolas, by Wace, relates an analogous miracle. Once a ship was in great danger—