St. Nicholas Day is celebrated every year on Dec. 6, typically by filling the stockings and shoes children leave out overnight with sweets and toys. It also is a fitting date for the patron saint ...

It is hard to imagine the cheery, plump version of Santa Claus emerged from Saint Nicholas, the 4th century Bishop of Myra who, as a nursing infant, fasted on holy days and whose bones were stolen ...

THE true face of the man that inspired Father Christmas can be seen for the first time in almost 1,700 years – after scientists reconstructed his likeness from his skull. Saint Nicholas of My… ...

BISMARCK, ND (KXNET) — Many people and famous Christmas songs refer to Santa Claus as Saint Nicholas, or St. Nick for short — but he’s far from the only figure in history to have that title ...

Nicholas’s relics remain enshrined in the 11th-century basilica of San Nicola at Bari, though fragments have been acquired by churches around the world. Santa Claus is based on stories about St ...

Archeologists, however, have recently discovered what they think is a temple below the Church of St. Nicholas in Demre and believe his remains may actually be lying there, Cemil Karabayram, the ...

And, of course, Nicholas was said to have frequently given away his inherited wealth anonymously to the poor, eventually leading to the legend of St. Nick as Santa Claus.

Saint Nicholas eventually became the patron of Rus’, and the most beloved saint in all of Holy Russia’s history.

NEW YORK (AP) — The white-bearded Christian saint whose acts of generosity inspired America’s secular Santa Claus figure is known worldwide — but Saint Nicholas' origin story is not.

NEW YORK (AP) — The white-bearded Christian saint whose acts of generosity inspired America’s secular Santa Claus figure is known worldwide — but Saint Nicholas' origin story is not.