<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/83898788-aeb0-49c9-a7ff-6791e0dca65d/C2833E04-4DF0-4DC8-A5CD-D626C5A8F1EE/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=95" href="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=95" style="font-size: 11px;">www.stnicholascenter.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=95"><P> <TABLE width="175" cellpadding="5" align="left"><TBODY><TR><TD valign="top"><A target="new" href="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/stnic/images/icon4-lg.jpg"><IMG width="175" border="0" src="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/stnic/images/icon4.jpg" alt="St Nicholas icon with brass oklad" /><BR /><FONT class="black-text-sm">19th century Russian icon <I><BR />St Nicholas Center Collection</I></FONT></A> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR />When <A class="brown-text" href="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=205#Vladimir+the+Great">Vladimir the Great</A> brought Christianity to Russia in AD 988, stories of Saint Nicholas came along, too. Nicholas is greatly revered in Russia as the protector of the weak from the strong, the oppressed from the oppressor, and the poor from the rich— he is the Russian champion of the disadvantaged. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=95">Saint Nicholas is the Orthodox tradition's Wonder or Miracle Worker. As such he is Russia's most beloved <A class="brown-text" href="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=205#saint">saint</A>;</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=95"><P>Proverbs like these reveal Nicholas' great popularity in Russia: </P><BLOCKQUOTE>"If anything happens to God, we've always got St. Nicholas."<BR />"There is no icon like Nicholas."</BLOCKQUOTE></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=95"><P>As patron of farming and cattle and master of water, St. Nikola the Wonder-Worker is in many sayings. For example, "The winter Nikola will bring the horse to the stable. The spring Nikola will feed the horse." St. Nikola's winter day, December 6th or 19th, was believed to be the beginning of winter matchmaking.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=95"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.stnicholascenter.org/img/9C8325A2-4147-4943-8C17-9634940ED511" alt="Archbishop giving icon to ship captain" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/C2833E04-4DF0-4DC8-A5CD-D626C5A8F1EE/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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