Saint Nicholas and the Three Children

The tale is set in a time of great famine. Three small children wandered the land in search of food, until they came to the house of a butcher. They knocked and asked for shelter for the night.

The butcher let them in, but he was a wicked man. In the dark he fell upon the children, killed them, and hid the little bodies in a great tub in which he salted meat, as if no one would ever notice.

That same night a traveller knocked: a bishop with a staff and a gentle look, Nicholas. He too asked for food. The butcher offered him all manner of things, but the saint shook his head. «I should like some of the salted meat,» he said, «the meat you put down seven years ago.»

The butcher turned pale. Nicholas knew everything. He stepped to the tub, stretched out his hand and made three signs of the cross over the brine.

Under the saint’s hands the water began to stir. One by one the three children sat up, rubbed their eyes as if they had only slept, and climbed unharmed out of the tub. The butcher fell to his knees in terror and remorse.

Ever since, Saint Nicholas has been the protector of children, shown with three small figures in a tub at his feet. When the town obtained a relic of the saint, the great basilica was built, and pilgrims from all of Lorraine came to Saint-Nicolas-de-Port to honour him.