Nicholas the Wonderworker, one of the most venerated Christian saints, is considered the patron saint of sailors and travelers. He is especially revered among sailors of Russian and foreign naval forces. In many ports worldwide there are churches built in his honor.
Among the most famous churches dedicated to Nicholas the Wonderworker is St. Nicholas Epiphany Naval Cathedral in St. Petersburg. A special practice began at the cathedral: local priests counseled and guided sailors of the Russian navy. Several frigates and battleships were named in honor of the wonderworker in the 18th–20th centuries.
Nicholas of Myra lived in the Roman Empire in the 3rd–4th centuries. In Russia, he has been revered since the 11th century, and from the very beginning, Nicholas was deemed a “national saint”. According to his hagiography, when Nicholas was still a young man, he went to study in Alexandria. In one of his sea voyages from Myra to Alexandria, according to legend, he resurrected a sailor who fell off the ship’s rigging in a storm. There is another legend that describes how Nicholas saved a sailor on his way back to Myra from Alexandria and took him to church with him upon their arrival. There are also accounts of miracles when Nicholas saved sailors from storms through prayer. During his lifetime, St. Nicholas became known as a pacifier of warring parties, a defender of the wrongfully convicted and a deliverer from sudden death.
It is believed that after death, the body of Nicholas began to produce myrrh and people began to make pilgrimages to his relics. A basilica was built over the grave of Nicholas in the 6th century, and at the beginning of the 9th century — the Church of St. Nicholas. The relics were kept there until 1087, when they were stolen by the Italians from the city of Bari. The relics of the saint now rest there (and partly in Venice). However, in Turkey it is believed that the genuine relics of Nicholas are kept in the city of Demre, where archaeologists excavated the church of the saint from under the layers of sand.
Another saint revered by sailors is St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called. Together with his brother Peter, Andrew was a fisherman. With the spread of Christianity, fishermen began to consider him their patron. In addition, a legend was popular in Russia about the visit of the apostle to Kyiv and Novgorod. Largely because of this legend, the St. Andrew’s Cross is depicted on the naval flag of Russia.
