Shortly after St Nicholas, bishop of Myra, died in 343, Christians from across the Mediterranean made pilgrimage to the town in Asia Minor, in gratitude for Nicholas’s bold stand against Roman paganism. One lady regretted that she could not travel, but nonetheless entrusted a ship with a jar of scented oil to be burnt in the lamps around the tomb.

That night, a crew member had a dream in which a man urged him to throw the lady’s jar of oil into the sea. At dawn he did just that, and was rewarded with a spectacular explosion. His shipmates agreed that Nicholas had thereby saved many lives, and they joined their passengers on their pilgrimage to the saint’s shrine.

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