The Orthodox Christians following the Julian calendar observe the Feast of Saint Nicholas on December 19. Saint Nicholas is the prototype of Santa Klaus, who is an old man who brings gifs to children and grownups.

Vasile Ciobanu, Bishop of the Church “Saint Hierarch Nichole” of Costesti, Ialoveni, said that in time Saint Nicholas became known as a wonderworker. “He was a very abstinent man who was a great benefactor. He always became involved when poor people were wronged or persons were unjustly condemned to death. He saved many from death by removing the executioner’s sward,” the priests stated for IPN.

Saint Nocolas was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was common for early Christian saints. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and students in various cities and countries around Europe.

Nicolas had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, a practice celebrated on his feast day, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of ‘Saint Nikolaos’.

According to the data provided by the Information Resources Center “Registru”, in Moldova there are over 80,000 people called Nicolae, with some of these being registered as Nicolai, and about 100 persons named Nicola. There are also 10,635 women and girls called Nicoleta, 207 are Niculina, while 237 are Nicole.