Lives and legends of the great hermits and fathers of the church, with other contemporary saints . lst theywere with him a messenger arrived to tell him that the Prefectof the city had condemned three innocent men to death, whowere even then about to suffer, and entreated the Bishop tointerfere on their behalf Without a moments delay St. Nicolas hastened to therescue, and, followed by his astonished guests, he arrived justin time. The condemned men were kneeling with their eyesbound, and the executioner had already unsheathed his sword,when it was wrenched from his hand by the Bishop, whoorder
Lives and legends of the great hermits and fathers of the church, with other contemporary saints . lst theywere with him a messenger arrived to tell him that the Prefectof the city had condemned three innocent men to death, whowere even then about to suffer, and entreated the Bishop tointerfere on their behalf Without a moments delay St. Nicolas hastened to therescue, and, followed by his astonished guests, he arrived justin time. The condemned men were kneeling with their eyesbound, and the executioner had already unsheathed his sword,when it was wrenched from his hand by the Bishop, whoordered the bonds to be cut and the victims to be set free. Hewas obeyed, and the Prefect, who knew he had been in thewrong, humbly sued for forgiveness. It was granted on con-dition of compensation being given to those who had beenunjustly condemned, and the good Bishop, followed by theblessings of all present, returned to his palace. The Imperial envoys proceeded on their journey muchimpressed by all they had seen, and, strange to say, somemonths later they were in their turn unjustly accused and. ?Jowo o ei m wZ;Hu ^ ^ ^ ST. NICOLAS OF MYRA 183 thrown into prison in Constantinople to await their their extremity they remembered their visit to Myra and thestrange rescue they had witnessed there. They managed toconvey a message to St. Nicolas, or, as some say, they merelylonged for him to come to them, and their need was revealedto him in a dream. The Bishop in his turn appeared to theEmperor in his sleep, threatening him with the vengeance ofHeaven if he did not immediately release his prisoners. Need-less to add that Constantine at once obeyed, and the gratefulmen were allowed to go to Myra to thank their rescuer, takingwith them, on the Emperors behalf, a copy of the Holy Gospelswith a cover enriched with precious stones. According to some versions of the legend of St. Nicolas, hewas present at the Council of Nicsea, and was so provoked atthe obstinacy of Arius that
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectpainting, bookyear190
