Today is the bright commemoration day of a great God-pleaser, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.

It opens the series of winter feasts and always warms our hearts with joy and gives consolation. Saint Nicholas is fervently loved by millions of people all over the world. His icon adorns and protects the home of every Christian family. And it is all because he is not just a hero of ancient legends or a historical figure from the distant past, but a living intercessor and an example of active Christian love and mercy.

For many centuries now, he helps everyone who prayerfully invokes his name with faith. The Church Tradition depicts Saint Nicholas absolutely not as a rosy-cheeked old man, who merrily gives out gifts to obedient children. We see an image of a strict ascetic and a champion of the truth of God, who could stop the hand of an executioner and courageously expose a ruler, fearing neither punishment nor condemnation from the powers that be.

The Gospel says: “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” Power is always given to a man as a great responsibility. And everyone who has it will sooner or later have to put his heart, his thoughts, and his deeds on the scales of God's Judgement.

All his life, Saint Nicholas sacrificed himself for the sake of God and of saving those whom the Lord had entrusted to his pastoral care. He thus gained holiness and became a true friend of Christ. And while he has always been a benefactor and quick intercessor for those who suffer and for the oppressed, he has also been a strict avenger on those who have become a cause of human afflictions.

This should be remembered by all those who do not understand the true purpose of power and who have decided that they are the masters of the destinies of millions of people. In a time of most hard trials, we especially need the help and example of our saints.

Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, one of the greatest ascetics of all times, became renowned as a pacifier of those in strife, defender of the wrongly convicted, and deliverer from sudden death. How relevant these problems are for contemporary Ukraine!

May the love of Christ, by which Saint Nicholas lived, fill our hearts as well. Let us learn from his uncompromisingness and firmness in defending the purity of the faith, his fidelity to the Holy Mother Church, and his mercy and decisiveness to do good even where it seems impossible.

May the Lord, through the prayers of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, bless our people with long-awaited peace, justice, and well-being.

I wholeheartedly greet you on the feast, dear brothers and sisters!