Catholic Prayer: Collect for Saint Nicholas of Myra, Bishop and Confessor, 1962
Description:
St. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor. When still a youth, he discreetly threw alms in at a window to save the honor of three young girls, an act still commemorated nowadays in "Santa Claus" when the children thank St. Nicholas for presents found on the hearth. God glorified him by an endless number of miracles, and the Church remembering the power he exercised over flames, makes us pray that we may, through his intercession, be preserved from the flames of hell (Collect). Having become archbishop of Myra, he took part in the Council of Nicea, which condemned Arianism.
He died in 324. His relics are preserved at Bari (Italy).
Prayer:
O God, You made blessed Nicholas famous by countless miracles; deliver us, we pray You, by his merits and prayers, from the flames of hell. Through our Lord. Amen.
Prayer Source: Saint Andrew Daily Missal by Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, Liturgical Apostolate, 1959
