Metropolitan Anthony (Packanich) told the main virtue of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker of Myra, is especially adored by believers. And not only Orthodox. Even though he lived many centuries ago, in the IV century, the memory of him is strong among the people, and an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is almost in every house.

We pray to the holy saint of God in moments of the hardest trials, sorrows, illnesses, when there is no one else to turn to. He is the last hope and a loyalbastion.

St. Nicholas helps during a persecution and injustice, in traveling, in various difficult andextreme situations.

In the prayers to St. Nicholas he is called as the image of meekness. And this is the highest human praise.

Meekness in modern people is associated with weakness, it is considered as the synonymous with it.Successful people strive to be strong, insolent and, as they believe, this is the reason of their success.

But the life of the saints, and especially the life of St. Nicholas, helps us to understand that everything is exactly the other way round. Nobody, who knows the Saint’s life, associates him with a weak person, or weak-willed, but he appears as a courageous, brave, steadfast fighter for the Orthodox faith. The Saint stopped the executioner's sword, by which they wanted to cut off the head of an innocent person.He always protected weak and unjustly offended people, without fear of any consequences. It is known that he appealed to the emperor himself in defense of the innocent ones.

The true meekness is the ability not to turn your strength and talents into the evil.  True meekness is a great power. This is the ultimate success.

«Weakness is great, but strength is insignificant», —  the main character of A. Tarkovsky's movie «Stalker» said, —«when a person is born, he is weak and flexible, but when he dies, he is strong and shallow-hearted. When a tree grows, it’s tender and flexible, but when it is dry and hard, it dies. Callousness and strength are the companions of death. Weakness and flexibility express the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will not win."

While we are weak, which means we’re meek, we are recepient to God's help, we accept His will, giving up our own. We are compassionate to our neighbors, merciful to the fallen and sinned ones. But as soon as we become strong, rely on ourselves, our knowledge and talents, we immediately lose real strength and become absolutely weak. This is a paradox of spiritual life.

Let us, through the prayers of St. Nicholas, cultivate in ourselves an invincible strength — the meekness, which overcomes all obstacles, adversities, trials, and it infuses strong faith in God and hope for His constant help and great mercies.

Holy Father Nicholas, pray unto God for us!