# Matins Nocturn 2 reading for St. Nicholas, Bishop, Confessor
# (Dec 6) — SanctiM/12-06.txt inherits the whole day (`@Sancti/12-06`)
# with no Nocturn 2 override, so this feast's own proper content is
# sourced from the Tridentine track exactly as for a pre-1955 saint
# (see memory vu-matins-pre1955-saints, vu-matins-sanctim-saints).
# web/www/horas/Latin/Sancti/12-06.txt, English/Sancti/12-06.txt.
# Lectio4-6 combined into one reading, one continuous vita (including
# the famous three-dowries and three-tribunes episodes), no genuine
# source break.
id: st-nicholas
readings:
  - nocturn: 2
    isGospel: false
    text:
      la: >-
        Nicoláum, illustri loco Pátaræ in Lycia natum, paréntes a Deo precibus impetrarunt.
        Cujus viri sanctitas quanta futura esset, jam ab incunábulis appáruit. Nam infans, cum
        réliquos dies lac nutrícis frequens súgeret, quarta et sexta feria semel dumtaxat,
        idque vesperi sugebat: quam jejunii consuetúdine in réliqua vita semper ténuit.
        Adoléscens paréntibus orbatus, facultates suas paupéribus distríbuit. Cujus illud
        insigne est christianæ benignitátis exemplum, quod cum ejus civis egens tres filias
        jam nubiles in matrimonio collocare non posset, earumque pudicítiam prostitúere
        cogitaret; re cognita, Nicolaus noctu per fenestram tantum pecuniæ in ejus domum
        injecit, quantum uníus vírginis doti satis esset: quod cum íterum et tertio fecísset,
        tres illæ vírgines honestis viris in matrimónium datæ sunt.


        Cum vero se totum Deo dedísset, in Palæstinam profectus est, ut loca sancta viseret,
        et præsens venerarétur. Qua in peregrinatióne navem conscéndens sereno cælo et
        tranquillo mari, horribilem nautis tempestátem prædixit; moxque ortam, cum essent
        omnes in summo periculo, orans mirabíliter sedávit. Unde cum domum reversus
        singuláris sanctitátis ómnibus documénta præberet, Dei admónitu Myram, quæ Lyciæ
        metropolis erat, venit; quo témpore ejus urbis episcopo mortuo, provinciales epíscopi
        de successore deligéndo consultábant. Itaque in ea deliberatióne divinitus admoniti
        sunt, ut eam eligerent, qui postridie mane primus in ecclésiam ingrederétur, Nicolaus
        nómine. Qua observatióne adhibita, in ecclésiæ janua deprehénsus est Nicoláus, et
        summo ómnium consénsu Myræ epíscopus creatur. In episcopatu castitátem, quam semper
        colúerat, gravitátem, oratiónis assiduitátem, vigílias abstinéntiam, liberalitátem et
        hospitalitátem, in adhortando mansuetúdinem, in reprehendéndo severitátem perpetuo
        adhibuit.


        Viduis et orphanis pecúnia, consílio, ópera non defuit; oppressos adeo sublevávit, ut
        étiam tres tribunos, per calumniam a Constantino Augusto condemnatos, qui se propter
        famam ejus miraculórum oratiónibus longíssime absenti commendarant, adhuc vivens, cum
        imperatóri, mináciter eum terrens, apparuísset, liberaverit. Cum vero contra edictum
        Diocletiáni et Maximiáni christianæ fidei veritátem Myræ prædicaret, ab imperatórum
        satellítibus comprehénsus, et longíssime abductus, in carcerem conjéctus est; ubi fuit
        usque ad Constantinum imperatórem, cujus jussu ex custódia ereptus, Myram rediit. Mox
        ad Nicænum concílium se cóntulit; ubi cum trecentis illis decem et octo Pátribus
        Arianam hæresim condemnávit. Inde reversus ad episcopátum, non ita multo post,
        instante morte, suspíciens in cælum, cum Angelos sibi occurréntes intuerétur, illo
        Psalmo pronuntiato, In te Dómine, sperávi; usque ad eum locum, In manus tuas
        comméndo spíritum meum; in cælestem pátriam migrávit. Ejus corpus Bárium in Apulia
        translátum, ibidem summa celebritate ac veneratióne cólitur.
      en: >-
        Nicolas was born at the famous city of Patara in Lycia. His parents obtained him from
        God by prayer, and the holiness of his life was marked even from the cradle. When he
        was at the breast he never would suck more than once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and
        that always after sunset, though he sucked freely on other days. This custom of
        fasting he never broke through during his whole life. While he was still a young man
        he lost both his father and mother, after which he gave his whole property away to the
        poor. One particular example is given of his Christian charity. There was a certain
        needy man in the city who had three marriageable daughters, for whom he could not get
        husbands, and so thought to make them harlots. When Nicolas heard of it, he went to
        the house by night and threw in by the window such a sum of money as made a dowry for
        one of them. This he did a second and a third time, and thus by his charity they were
        honourably given in marriage.


        When he had given himself entirely to God he set forth for Palestine, that he might
        see the Holy Places, and worship therein. During this pilgrimage he embarked once on
        board a ship when the sky was clear and the sea calm, but he foretold a great storm,
        which afterwards arose and raged until the sailors were afraid; and then the saint by
        prayer stilled the tempest. After he had returned home, and his holy life was known to
        all men, God bade him go to Myra, which is the chief city of Lycia, at a time when the
        Bishop had just died and the Bishops of the Province were called together to choose a
        successor. While they deliberated, they received a warning from heaven to choose that
        Nicolas who should first come into the church in the morning. In obedience to that
        warning, Nicolas was seized at the door of the church, and with universal consent
        consecrated Archbishop. In his great office he was an unceasing model of purity, as he
        had always been, of gravity, of regularity in prayer, of watching, of abstinence, of
        charity, of hospitality, of meekness in exhortation, and of sternness in rebuke.


        He was the comforter of widows and orphans by money, by advice, and by labour. He was
        the deliverer of the oppressed, so mightily, that it is related that the Emperor
        Constantine once unjustly condemned three Tribunes to death, and these unhappy men
        called upon Nicolas, though living and absent, to save them, who yet appeared in a
        vision to the Emperor, and forced him by threats to set them free. When the Emperors
        Diocletian and Maximian published their edict against Christianity, Nicolas did not
        cease to preach the truth at Myra, wherefore he was seized by the soldiers of the
        Emperors, carried away from his See, and thrown into prison, where he remained until
        the accession of Constantine. This Prince set him free, and he returned to Myra. He
        betook himself to the first Council of Nicea, where he was one of the 318 Bishops who
        condemned the heresy of Arius. He returned thence to his Bishopric, and, not long
        after, became aware of the approach of death. When his last moment was come, he lifted
        up his eyes to heaven, and, when he saw the Angels coming to meet him, he began to
        recite the thirtieth Psalm, In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust, and when he had said,
        Into thy hands I commend my spirit, he passed to the heavenly Fatherland. His body was
        finally removed to Bari in Apulia, where it is kept with great fame and honour.
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }
