Music for Feast of Saint Nicholas

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The feast of St. Nicholas of Myra is coming up - on December 6. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of my city and co-patron (with Our Lady) of the cathedral where I am one of the organists. As I will be playing at the Mass on that day, I think it would be nice to find a chant setting in honour of this great saint.

Does anyone know if there is a chant in his honour which is readily available (eg. on the net)? I know if there is it wouldn’t be well known, but there are certainly chants in honour of some of the other saints. I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction, or even private-message me if you think you might be able to e-mail me such a relevant setting.

Many Thanks.
 
I don’t know of any chants, but you could try “For All the Saints”, “By all Your Saints Still Striving” and, perhaps, "God, We Praise You (a paraphrase of the Te Deum). I do not know if a patronal feast qualifies an exemption for the Gloria during Advent (as is the case with the Feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe).

For Communion, you could use “Shepherd of Souls”. It’s kind of tricky when a saint’s feast day falls within a penitential season. Now, the other question is, to which Rite do you belong? The reason is that many of the Eastern rites in communion with the Latin Rite have beautiful songs and antiphons that you could use as well.
 
There’s a Ruthenian/Ukrainian carol to St. Nicolas (Incipit: O kto, kto, Nikolaje liubit). You can try them.

Here are the words in English as generally sung:

O who loves Nicholas the holy?
O who serves Nicholas the holy?
Him will Nicholas receive
And give help in time of need:
Holy father Nicholas.

He who lives in God’s holy mansion
Is our help in earth, sky, and ocean.
He will guard us from all ills,
Keep us pure and free from sin.
Holy father, Nicholas.

Holy saint, listen to our prayer.
Let not life drive us to despair.
Help us heaven to attain
There to praise God’s holy name
Evermore and evermore.
 
In any case, please DON’T sing “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” or “Old Saint Nick.” 😛
 
baltobetsy said:
I guess you don’t want “Santa Baby,” either.

Betsy
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Joe_Kelley said:
Here Comes Santa Claus won’t do for a processional. 😃
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DaveBj said:
In any case, please DON’T sing “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” or “Old Saint Nick.” 😛
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Oh no… I think I’ll have to rethink the whole line-up so…!!
Thanks so much to those who have replied with suggestions and links to useful sites. I was particularly delighted with one link which is a website dedicated to St Nicholas - www.stnicholascentre.org - well worth a visit…

Unfortunately the choir won’t actually be singing on the day, so I was hoping to have a plainchant hymn to the Saint which I could use in an organ improvisation if needed - I think that would be special, even if the words aren’t sung! So if I don’t find anything in the meantime, I might use the chant of the introit for the Mass of a Confessor Bishop which is ‘Statuit ei Dominus’ (Liber Usualis, 1961) - it is a lovely chant & I’m sure that would suffice too!

Many thanks again to all.🙂
 
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