The history of Santa Claus is wrapped in legend and possibly originates from a number of different beings. The name Santa Claus is believed to be derived from Saint Nicholas, the national saint of Russia, Greece, Apulia, Sicily and Lorraine. He is the patron saint of judges, paupers, sailors (specifically storm-beset sailors), bakers, travelers, poor children, prisoners, perfumers, thieves (highwaymen are called "St. Nicholas' clerks" and pray to him for travelers to set upon), pawnbrokers, boys, virgins and/or unmarried girls and others; and friend and protector of anyone in trouble.

Saint Nicholas was born in 4th-century Lycia, near the coast of Asia Minor (what is now Turkey) and eventually became the bishop of Myra. His love of children, his kindness, his charity and the miracles attributed to him are legendary. He was supposedly present at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., where he was imprisoned for his faith by Emperor Diocletian: He once saved three wrongly accused soldiers from execution by appearing to Emperor Constantine in a dream. He also rescued three sailors from a storm off the Turkish coast, and restored three children to life, one after another, after their heads had been severed. His most famous story tells how he helped three unfortunate young sisters who could not marry because their father, a poor nobleman, had no money to pay their dowry. A shy man, the bishop Nicholas attempted to give the money anonymously, tossing a bag of gold into the nobleman's house on each of three nights. On the third night, the nobleman kept watch and saw Nicholas drop the bag of gold into the house. It has been said that Nicholas climbed on the roof and dropped the third bag of gold down the chimney where it landed in a stocking hung to dry. Nicholas begged the nobleman to keep his secret, but the news got out. From then on, when anyone received an unexpected gift, they thanked Nicholas. When Nicholas' relics were taken by sailors and moved to Bari, Italy in 1087, following the Muslim invasion of Myra, a church was bulit upon them, inaugurated by Pope Urban II