Nicholas of Myra is a fourth-century bishop about whom little is historically certain and around whom an enormous body of legend and devotion gathered, to the point that his figure became, by a long and winding route, Santa Claus. The legends emphasize secret generosity and the protection of the vulnerable: most famously, he is said to have saved three impoverished sisters from being sold into prostitution by tossing bags of gold through their window by night to provide their dowries, the story behind the tradition of gift-giving in his name and, some say, the origin of the three gold balls of the pawnbroker's sign.
Other tales have him rescuing sailors from storms, saving unjustly condemned men from execution, and restoring murdered children to life, making him patron of children, sailors, merchants, and many cities. His enormous popularity spread his cult across both Eastern and Western Christianity. The transformation into Santa Claus came through the Dutch Sinterklaas, carried to America and fused, in the nineteenth century, with older midwinter gift-bringers into the modern figure. Behind the commercial icon stands a real bishop remembered above all for hidden charity.