Pope (ca. 820–867)
St. Nicholas was born in Rome to a noble family. At a young age he was placed in service to the papal household, where he so distinguished himself that upon the death of Pope Benedict III in 858, Nicholas, though only a deacon, was chosen as his successor
It was a difficult time for the Church—strained by rivalry between Constantinople and Rome, subject to constant tensions with avaricious kings and the bishops they had corrupted. He took a stand against Lothair II of Lorraine, who wished to divorce his wife. In the case of a Frankish princess, he upheld her freedom to marry without her father’s consent. He admonished Boris, king of the Bulgars, to refrain from converting his subjects by force and from engaging in torture.
A tireless defender of the weak and oppressed, Nicholas maintained a registry of all the poor and disabled in Rome and made sure that they were fed in their homes. Following his death on November 13, 867, he was widely acclaimed as a saint. As one of his contemporaries wrote, “He gave orders to kings and rulers as though he were lord of the world. To good bishops and priests, to religious lay people, he was kind and gentle and modest; to evildoers he was terrible and stern. It is rightly said that in him God raised up a second Elias.”
“You say that you are subject to the prince because the apostle says: ‘Obey the king, as being set over you.’ You are right; but be sure that these kings and princes are genuine. See whether they act uprightly, govern their subjects well, for what is he good for who is bad in himself? See whether they are princes justly; otherwise we must rather hold them as tyrants than kings, and resist. . . .” —St. Nicholas I to Adventius, Bishop of Mainz
