Stories & Legends

St. Nicholas & the Angry Jew

Jacobus de Voragine

The Jew beats the statue of the Saint after he is robbed by thieves; below, St. Nicholas orders the thieves to return the goods

There was a Jew who saw the virtuous miracles of St. Nicholas, and so he made an image of the Saint and set it in his house. Then he commanded Nicholas that he should keep well his house when he went out, and that he should keep safe all of his goods, saying to him:

“Nicholas, lo! Here be all my goods. I charge thee to keep them, and if thou keep them not well, I shall avenge myself on thee by beating and tormenting thee.”

And after a time, when the Jew was out, thieves came and robbed all his goods, and left unborne away only the image. And when the Jew came home he found him robbed of all his goods.

He addressed the statue, saying these words: “Sir Nicholas, I had set ye in my house to keep my goods from thieves. Wherefore have ye not kept them safe? Ye shall receive sorrow and torments and shall have pain for the thieves. I shall avenge my loss and refrain my anger by beating thee.”

And so the Jew took the statue, and beat it and tormented it cruelly.

Then happed a great marvel, for when the thieves had departed with the goods, the holy Saint, like as he had been in his episcopal array, appeared to the thieves, and said to them:

“Wherefore have I been beaten so cruelly for you and have so many torments? See how my body is hewed and broken; see how the red blood runneth down by my body.

"Go ye fast and restore these stolen goods, or else the ire of God Almighty shall make you all as to be one out of your wits, and all men shall know your felony, and each of you shall be hanged.”

And they said : “Who art thou that sayest to us such things?”

And he said to them: “I am Nicholas the servant of Jesus Christ, whom the Jew hath so cruelly beaten for his goods that ye bore away.”

Then they were afraid, and returned to the Jew, who told him what he had done to the statue. And they told him the miracle, and delivered to him again all his goods.

And thus came the thieves to the way of truth, and the Jew to the way of Jesus Christ due to the miracle of St. Nicholas. May God be praised in His holy Saint Nicholas.

Adapted from The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine,
Cambridge Un. Press, 1914, pp 70-71.
Posted December 7, 2024

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