From the Life of St Nicholas
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Helgastadabók: Nikulás Saga
Bergr Sokkason, early 1300s
The Nicholas Saga is richly illuminated manuscript from medieval Iceland with three full-page illuminations and fifteen figured capitals. Bergr Sokkason, the haigiographer, was a medieval Icelandic monk, abbot, scholar, and prolific writer. These selections were translated by Peter Cahill.
Kapitulum
1. As soon as he reaches school age the blessed boy Nicholas is put to school to learn his books under a good and God-fearing master. So quick is he to grasp all their meaning within a short time that the spirit of wisdom of God is clearly manifest guiding his mind. At the same time he is so obedient and submissive to his teacher that he wants to do everything so as best to please him. And indeed the blessed Nicholas readily wins from his master a more special affection than any other of his students, as a result of which the tinder of envy is kindled in the hearts of the scholars to a certain animosity towards Nicholas, and very undeservedly, for he is gentle and loving towards them as towards everyone else, as will appear in the following account, the truth of both his love and their malice.
Kapitulum
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It happens one day when the scholars have heard the lectures of their master that he gives them all together his kindly permission to leave the school to rest or play for such and such a time. Nicholas receives this permission along with his schoolmates, but in a different spirit, for he thinks no less out of doors than in on the heavenly sweetness of Holy Scripture, as can be seen from the fact that he takes his book with him out of the school, keeping his eye on it while the other scholars clown and play the fool. They choose a site for their game at a certain place on the beach, for the city of Patera stood very close to the sea. So far out have they gone that it is not possible for them to be there at high tide. Nicholas goes with his companions more out of affection and true love than any kind of folly or unclean wantonness, as he clearly demonstrates, sitting and taking no part in the game, reading his book and going over the texts that have been read to him, carefully and minutely, correctly and maturely, until on account of his tender years he sinks to the ground away from his book and falls fast asleep, right in the path of the incoming tide. There he lies under God's eye until the scholars abandon their game. He is still asleep as before and all the same none of them is willing to wake him, through envy and malice, for they see shining manifoldly over him what none of them wished to possess.
Kapitulum
This done, they now go home to their lodging leaving the boy where he lies. The sea now comes in all around as determined by God Himself, and as soon as the schoolmaster learns that Nicholas has not returned with the other scholars he asks them firmly and searchingly where they have left Nicholas. They now have to tell the truth, though unwillingly, how inhumanely they have treated their schoolmate, kind and innocent [as he is]. Without delay, with all haste the schoolmaster runs down to the shore, there beholding a divine miracle: the sea is flooding up on to the land according to its appointed nature, but it is quite against nature that Nicholas is lying sleeping dry and safe in the middle of the flood tide, as if there were a wall around him, so that the element was nowhere able to touch him, nor his book any more than his hair or clothing. Such miracles are in keeping with the divine wisdom, that he should first himself be saved from the sea who later saved many others from great waves by his merits. From this point on the virtue of God's noble friend Nicholas awoke while he was still at an early age, as can be seen still further from what follows.
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2. Nicholas inherits his parents' wealth; he prays to God to reveal to him how best to use it. He hears of a formerly rich man in the town who has lost or wasted all his property and cannot now find matches for his three daughters for lack of a dowry; he has decided to sell them to whoever will have them. In response to divine prompting, Nicholas takes a bag of gold one night and lets it down secretly through the window of the room in which the girls sleep. With this money the father is able to give his eldest daughter a dowry and still have enough to live on. He tries without success to trace his benefactor. This happens a second time. The father then resolves to keep watch by night. A few days later Nicholas a third time sets out with yet another bag of gold, but this time the girls' father sees him. Nicholas tries to flee, but when challenged in God's name allows himself to be recognized. The father promises to repent, and to keep the secret.
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3. When Nicholas is about to be consecrated archbishop, a woman in the town is preparing to bath her baby. She has placed a bowl of water over the fire to warm it, and has just placed the baby in the water when she hears that the ceremony is beginning. Forgetting everything she runs to the church. At the end of the consecration she comes to herself, runs home, and finds the baby unharmed in the bowl of boiling water with flames all around. All rejoice at this sign of divine favour towards their new archbishop.
4. Some sailors are caught by a sudden storm at sea, and are in immediate peril. They call upon Nicholas, whereupon an unknown man boards the ship saying he is answering their call. He makes good the damage to the ship, and the storm subsides. The sailors come to a harbour not far from Myra, where they enquire after Nicholas. They find him in church and recognize him at once as the man who saved them. He tells them to give God the credit and thanks.
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5. A rich man and his wife murder three merchants they have given lodging to, and steal their money. They bury the bodies under their storehouse, having removed the entrails and sunk them weighted with stones in a nearby waterfall. Shortly afterwards Nicholas stops at the rich man's house, but refuses to eat the meal provided for him. He takes the rich man out alone to the storehouse and makes him dig up the floor, revealing the bodies. They go to the waterfall, where the entrails come to the surface in response to Nicholas' prayers. Nicholas returns the entrails to the bodies and brings the three merchants back to life. The rich man and his wife repent.
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6. Nicholas becomes ill and takes to his bed. A woman is brought to him with a sickness that makes her insane every new moon. He sends her away healed. He calls together his priests and other important people and makes arrangements for the future. He has himself carried into the church, where he receives Extreme Unction before taking his leave of everyone. In response to his prayer he sees angels coming to receive him into Paradise, and dies with the words of Ps. 31 'In manus tuas . . .' on his lips ["In you, O Lord, I seek refuge . . . .".
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7. A rich man vows a golden cup to St Nicholas' church in Myra, but when it is ready it is so beautiful that he begrudges giving it away and orders instead another to be made just like it, and keeps the first one for his own personal use. The goldsmith, however, is unable to make the duplicate, and returns the rich man's gold. The rich man sets out by ship to be present at the feast of St Nicholas in Myra according to his custom, intending to offer the unused gold and gems instead of the promised cup, and takes his wife, son, and the golden cup with him. On the way he tells his son to give him a drink of wine in the cup; the young man is about to rinse the cup out in the sea when he falls overboard with it, and both are lost.
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When they arrive in Myra the rich man's offerings in the church are hurled aside by an invisible hand. He then confesses his sin, vowing to give a large part of his wealth to the church if St Nicholas will intercede with God for the return of his son. Thereupon the young man enters the church holding the golden cup, telling how he had been safeguarded by an old man of noble appearance who had brought him to land before disappearing. The rich man presents the golden cup to the church and keeps his vow to the full.
In another section
St. Nicholas Saga: Helgastadabók
18 illustrations from the Icelandic Medieval manuscript
Selections from Life of St Nicholas by Bergr Sokkason, English translation and summary by Peter Cahill
From Helgastadabók: Nikulás saga : Perg. 4to nr. 16 by Selma Jónsdóttir, Stefán Karlsson, Sverrir Tómasson.
Reykjavik:Sverrir Kristinsson, Lögberg Bókaforlag, 1982, pp: 229-232.