When you think of an axman felling a tree at Christmastide, you probably think of the pine tree to be decorated with ornaments and lights. But when St. Nicholas — now most famous as Santa Claus — swung his ax at a tree, it was to drive out the demons hiding inside.
There are many amazing stories of the miracle worker and bishop Nicholas, who lived in the fourth century in what is now Turkey. These include his inspiring the Christmas stocking tradition by throwing bags of gold for dowries into the stockings of impoverished girls, and raising to life three murdered children. One story that is regaining popularity now is how he smacked the heretic Arius in the face at the Council of Nicaea. But Nicholas didn’t just punch heretics; he also took an ax to demons.
Like any effective exorcist, St. Nicholas relied primarily on prayer and invocation of the power of God, but he also liked to add a practical edge to his confrontations with demons — literally.
At Nicholas’s time, many former pagan temples were still possessed by the devils who had masqueraded as gods. Nicholas, as a good bishop, began a ministry of exorcising the demons from the shrines, some of which were also centered around “sacred” trees and wells (which pagans believed were inhabited by nymphs and other divine creatures).
By this means, the St. Nicholas Center explained, the good bishop was “restoring peace to the people.” He was, in fact, so successful as an exorcist that his fame preceded him, and some villages would specifically request him to come and assist them.
Related: Little-Known Tales of St. Nicholas of Myra, the Real Santa Claus
That’s how we arrive at today’s brief interesting tale, as told by the St. Nicholas Center:
The villagers of Plakoma asked Nicholas to rid a cypress tree of demons. To do so, Nicholas swung an axe, thereby frightening the demons away.
Hearing of this success, folk in the next village asked him to come and get rid of demons living in the village well. Again the demons fled, shrieking away.
These stories have been represented multiple times in icons, a particular style of religious art that endures in Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches. While the details of Nicholas’s startling method of exorcism are sparse, it is unsurprising that they fired the religious imagination of many an icon writer in the past.
St. Nick drives out demons pic.twitter.com/KodgNOZ1M5
— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32) December 6, 2025
Below is a sweet prayer to St. Nicholas that is particularly appropriate for Christmas:
O good St. Nicholas, you who are the joy of the children, put in my heart the spirit of childhood, which the gospel speaks, and teach me to seed happiness around me.
You, whose feast prepares us for Christmas, open my faith to the mystery of God made man. You good bishop and shepherd, help me to find my place in the Church and inspire the Church to be faithful to the Gospel.
O good Saint Nicholas, patron of children, sailors and the helpless, watch over those who pray to Jesus, your Lord and theirs, as well as over those who humble themselves before you. Bring us all in reverence to the Holy Child of Bethlehem, when true joy and peace are found. Amen.
May the good bishop Nicholas pray for us.
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