St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky)
People
who are familiar with and know the order of our Orthodox divine
services (Typikon) know that these services often utilize prokeimena.
This Greek name denotes any text from the Holy Scripture that has a
particularly close relationship to any given feast day. For example,
when there is a feast in honor of St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the
Theologian, or St. John Chrysostom, these great theologians and
teachers of the faith, then the prokeimenon corresponds to their great
glory: "My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart
shall be of understanding." For their mouths, truly, pronounced to the
world the words of divine wisdom.
Today we celebrate
the feast of another great hierarch, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker,
but we hear another prokeimenon: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of His saints." This prokeimenon is proclaimed in honor of
many great saints. But although St. Nicholas the Hierarch and
Wonderworker instructed and taught his flock with inspired and
grace-filled words, his principal glory does not lie therein. We know
wherein lies his true glory. Holy ascetics and saints who were
glorified for their works of charity and mercy are so named:
"merciful." Very recently the Church glorified one such great merciful
saint: Righteous Philaret the Merciful. And today She magnifies St.
Nicholas, whom the Russian people likewise named in honor of his
wondrous works of love and charity "Nicholas the Merciful." And
Russian people, seeing someone in sorrow, in misery, in infirmities,
will say to him: "Pray to Nicholas the Merciful, and he will tell the
All-Merciful Savior of your need."
I would like to
remind you of the special glory given to St. Nicholas, above that
given to other holy God-pleasers. It is the fact that his name is
honored among pagans who know not Christianity. And there is a reason
for this. There was an incident well-known to the citizens of Harbin.
In Harbin there was a so-called "New Cemetery." It was bordered on one
side by a long, tall, steep cliff. One day, some Chinese children were
playing there. They were playing under some overhangs of the cliff
that could easily fall. And so, while the Chinese children were
playing there, suddenly a radiant elder appeared to them, who sternly
told them in Chinese that they were to immediately leave this place.
The frightened children ran, and as soon as they had run away from
that spot, a huge piece of the cliff collapsed. They would have been
crushed under it, had it not been for the elder’s warning. News of
this spread swiftly among the Chinese, of course, and later among the
Russians.
One Russian hunter,
occupying himself with his favorite pastime, walked far off into the
jungles of China. Weary, he entered a small Chinese village. The
Chinese, a welcoming, genial people, offered him a place to rest.
Entering into one of the huts, he saw nailed above the entryway an
icon of St. Nicholas. He realized that, these being pagans, the icon
must have somehow accidentally ended up with them, and he asked the
master of the house to give him the icon. He grew upset with him and
answered, "This old man is a very good man; we honor him much, because
he helps us greatly."
I recall one more
instance: at the train station in Harbin there was a large, ornate
icon of St. Nicholas, which many considered to be wonderworking. All
Russian Orthodox people (excepting, perhaps, the atheists), when they
traveled by train and wound up in the Harbin train station, considered
it their Christian duty to pray before that icon and put up a candle.
There was one incident that took place in the spring. There was an ice
floe on the large, wide Songhua River. Many people had gathered at the
station, and trains were passing through frequently. Suddenly they see
a Chinese man run into the building, soaking wet. He ran in, threw
himself before the icon, falling to his knees, and began to cry aloud
something in his own language. It turned out that he was thanking the
holy Hierarch. What had happened? He was in a hurry and decided to
risk it ‒ he chose to cross the river by jumping across the drifting
ice. The ice on the Songhua was fairly solid and thick. So there he
was running, and suddenly he fell into the water and found himself
under the ice, drowning… But, remembering the icon and how deeply the
Russians venerated it, cried out in Chinese: "Old man from the
station, help me!" And he appeared on the shore, wet, but on the
shore… How? He couldn’t understand… He then got up and ran the whole
long way to the station, fell before the icon and offered his thanks.
It is no
coincidence that St. Nicholas is venerated not only by the Orthodox
Christian population, but by pagans, as well. It is done unto them
according to their faith! And that is why the Russian person will
always turn to St. Nicholas, regardless of what he may need, because
he knows and believes that many voices call out to the holy Hierarch,
there in the holy, Heavenly realm, but the holy Hierarch will always
hear and come to the aid of the voice of faith, the voice of hope
against hope. It is no coincidence, I repeat, that the Russian people
call him Nicholas the Merciful.
Amen.
Translated from the original Russian by Rdr. Gregory Levitsky
Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese
