The Translation of the Honorable Relics of Saint Nikola the Wonderworker #
The great saint of God, Nikola, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, has been glorified by mighty miracles and acts of kindness, which he performed during his earthly life and continues to perform after his repose. He heals the sick, drives out demons, frees captives, grants sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, delivers those drowning at sea, and gives help in every trouble… His fame has spread throughout the Christian world, and he is venerated in all corners of the earth.
In the time of the reign of Grand Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich, grandson of Grand Prince Vladimir who baptized Rus’, and his son, Prince Vladimir of Chernigov—later called Monomakh—by the ineffable providence of God, a calamity befell the Greek land: an invasion by the Hagarenes, who passed through Antioch and reached even unto Jerusalem, killing Christians, taking women and children captive, and laying waste to homes and churches. This same fate befell the church in Myra of Lycia, where the honorable relics of Saint Nikola lay.
Then the All-Merciful God, unwilling that the relics of His saint should remain in neglect under the rule of unbelievers, willed that they be transferred to another place, inaccessible to Hagarene conquest. In the year 1087, Saint Nikola appeared in a dream to a priest in the Italian city of Bari and said: “Go and tell the people and the whole Church to sail to Myra, and having taken my relics from there, lay them in the city of Bari. For I cannot remain there in that desolate place, for so it is pleasing to my Lord God!” Having said this, the saint departed. In the morning, the priest recounted the wondrous vision to the townspeople. They rejoiced and began to prepare ships for the voyage to retrieve the holy relics.
Outfitting three ships and loading the holds with wheat, and taking priests with them, the people of Bari set sail for Antioch under the pretense of trade, planning to retrieve the relics of Saint Nikola from Myra of Lycia on their return journey. The people of Venice learned of this expedition and likewise hastened to sail, seeking to overtake the people of Bari and bring the relics to their own city. This news reached the merchants of Bari while they were in Antioch, where they had sold their wheat and were purchasing various goods. Abandoning all trade dealings, the Bariots hurried to Myra to obtain the relics, arriving before the Venetians.
Upon reaching the city, they sent two scouts, who returned to the ship and reported that the city was quiet, and that in the church where the relics of Saint Nikola rested, there were only four Greek monks. Then an armed party of 47 men disembarked from the ships and entered the Greek church. The monks showed the foreigners the place beneath the floor of the church where the holy relics were buried. They dismantled the floor and found a marble reliquary, full of fragrant myrrh flowing from the relics of the saint. After praying to the saint and gathering the myrrh into vessels, the Bariots took up the saint’s relics. One of the Bariot priests wrapped the relics in his cloak and carried them to the ship, accompanied by the other Bariots.
The merchants offered the monks guarding the church a ransom for the relics—three hundred gold coins—but the monks refused. Two of the monks chose to accompany the relics to Bari, while the other two were bound by the Bariots so that they could not summon the townspeople for help. When the ships had already set out to sea, the entire city gathered on the shore, trying in vain to reclaim the relics—but it was already too late.
The ships departed from Myra in Lycia on April 11 and arrived in Bari on Sunday, May 9, 1087, toward evening. The entire city gathered to receive the holy relics—elders and youth, men and women, people of every rank, age, and occupation. With them came archbishops, bishops, archimandrites, abbots, priests, and the entire church clergy with candles and incense, singing divine hymns in praise of the great saint Nikola. A solemn procession with the honorable relics proceeded from the harbor to the Church of Saint John the Forerunner, where the holy reliquary was placed. During the procession, many afflicted with various ailments were healed, and miracles continued to be worked later in the church.
Seeing such great wonders, the townspeople built a large stone church in the name of Saint Nikola. The construction lasted more than two years. At that time, the Roman high priest Germanus came from Rome to Bari and consecrated the church. He then transferred the relics of Saint Nikola into a new silver reliquary and, in a solemn procession, bore them into the new church, where they remain to this day, exuding myrrh and healing those who come to them in faith.
Many among the Orthodox wonder why God allowed the relics of Saint Nikola to be transferred from the Orthodox city of Myra to the city of Bari, where by that time the priesthood had fallen away from Orthodoxy into Latinism. Ancient Russian theologians answered such a question thus: The great Orthodox Saint Nikola, who during his life was a confessor of the true faith, even after death preaches by his miracles among the Latin peoples the truth and God-pleasing nature of Orthodoxy, in which he abided unwaveringly.
The Greek Church does not celebrate the feast of Saint Nikola on May 9 (22), for in those days they lost a great holy treasure. But we, in the Russian land, honoring this missionary feat of the saint after his repose, celebrate it with joy and cry aloud: O Saint Nikola, servant of Christ, pray unto God for us!