Today is the Feast of St. Nicholas I've seen many hagiographies of him posted in his honor, most notably Ian and Presbytera Lisa, so I'll not repeat.

However, I really liked this reflection by St. Nikolai Velimirovch

In icons of St. Nicholas, the Lord Savior is usually depicted on one side
with a Gospel in His hands, and the Most-holy Virgin Theotokos is depicted
on the other side with an episcopal omophorion in her hands. This has a
twofold historical significance: first, it signifies the calling of Nicholas
to the hierarchical office, and second, it signifies his exoneration from
the condemnation that followed his confrontation with Arius. St. Methodius,
Patriarch of Constantinople, writes: ``One night St. Nicholas saw our Savior
in glory, standing by him and extending to him the Gospel, adorned with gold
and pearls. On his other side, he saw the Theotokos, who was placing the
episcopal pallium on his shoulders.'' Shortly after this vision, John the
Archbishop of Myra died and St. Nicholas was appointed archbishop of that
city. That was the first incident. The second incident occurred at the time
of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. Unable to stop Arius through
reason from espousing the irrational blasphemy against the Son of God and
His Most-holy Mother, St. Nicholas struck Arius on the face with his hand.
The Holy Fathers at the Council, protesting such an action, banned Nicholas
from the Council and deprived him of all emblems of the episcopal rank. That
same night, several of the Holy Fathers saw an identical vision: how the
Lord Savior and the Most-holy Theotokos were standing around St. Nicholas-on
one side the Lord Savior with the Gospel, and on the other side the
Most-holy Theotokos with a pallium, presenting the saint with the episcopal
emblems that had been removed from him. Seeing this, the fathers were
awestruck and quickly returned to Nicholas that which had been removed. They
began to respect him as a great chosen one of God, and they interpreted his
actions against Arius not as an act of unreasonable anger, but rather an
expression of great zeal for God's truth.


Even though Xavier’s behavior recently has deserved coals, he nonetheless found treats on his bed (we forgot to set out shoes last night) as did Cedric (although the treats didn’t find themselves to his bed until after he left for school). The boys met a special visitor at church on Sunday.

Explore more about St. Nicholas at this wonderful web site and Happy Feast Day!