St. Nicholas - Nearly Everybody's Saint!

In addition to children, sailors, and prisoners, many others have laid claim to St. Nicholas as patron. The list below shows the great variety of causes which are linked to him. Why did some of these groups become identified with the beloved saint? Though usually traced to one of the stories or legends, some are primarily geographical, such as the cloth trade which was strong in Flanders and Lorraine where many churches were named for St. Nicholas. Some unlikely groups, like thieves, are in his patronage—not because he helps them steal, but because he helps them repent and change. One of the most commonly seen, though not necessarily understood, is the pawnbrokers' symbol of three gold balls. Pawnbrokers and bankers both regarded Saint Nicholas as their patron and took his gold balls as their own symbol to represent redeeming something of value as Nicholas had used the three bags of gold to redeem the lives of three young women.

Archers Apothecaries (pharmacists) Armed forces police Bakers Bankers Bargemen Barrel makers Boatmen Boot blacks Bottlers Boys Brides Brewers Businessmen Butchers Buttonmakers Candle makers Captives Chandlers (suppliers of ships) Children Choristers Citizens Clergy Clerks Cloth trade & merchants Coopers (barrelmakers) Corn measurers & merchants Court recorders, registrars, clerks Dock workers Drapers Druggists Embalmers Ferrymen Firefighters Fishermen Florists Grain dealers & merchants Grocers Grooms Haberdashers Infants Infertile Judges Lace makers & sellers Lawsuits lost unjustly Lawyers Lemko people, Ukraine Linen merchants Longshoremen Lovers Maidens Mariners Merchants Military intelligence

Millers Murderers Navigators Newlyweds Notaries Oil merchants Orphans Packers Parish clerks Paupers Pawnbrokers Pedlars Perfumeries Perfumers Pharmacists Pilgrims Pirates Poets Poor people Preachers Prisoners Prostitutes Pupils Ribbon weavers Robbers & thieves Schoolchildren Sailors Scholars Seed merchants Shearmen Shipwreck victims Shipwrights & gaugers Ships carpenters Shoemakers Shoe shiners Shopkeepers Skippers Soldiers Spice-dealers Spinsters Students Tanners Teachers Thieves Timber merchants Travelers Unjustly condemned Unmarried men Unmarried women Virgins Watermen Weavers Wine porters, merchants & vendors Women, desirous of marrying Woodturners