DUSHANBE, December 19, Asia-Plus  -- Members of the Orthodox Church in Tajikistan are making a Day of St. Nicholas the Wonderwork today.   

According to the St. Nicholas Cathedral Church in Dushanbe, a holiday liturgy is being held today in four Orthodox churches in Dushanbe, Qurghon Teppa, Tursunzoda and Chkalovsk as ell as two chapels recently opened in Dushanbe and Norak.  

St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (3rd-4th centuries AD) was bishop of Myra in Lycia, and he was noted for his ardent faith, his works of charity, and his miracles.

St. Nicholas was the most worshipped saint in Russia and several members of the Romanov family bore his name. St. Tsarina Alexandra, wife of Emperor Diocletian, suffered during the persecution of Christians in the early 4th century.  Princess Alice of Hessen-Darmstadt converted to Russian Orthodoxy when she married Nicholas II and received the name Alexandra.