On various websites you can find the following quotation, attributed to St Nicholas of Myra:
The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God’s giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.
No source is given, however.
A google search revealed no results prior to 2015, when it appeared in Carol Kelly-Gangi, 365 Days with the Saints: A Year of Wisdom from the Saints, New York: Wellfleet Press (2015) ISBN 978-1-62788-963-6, p.257 (Google Books Preview). Here’s a screen grab of the top of the page, which gives an idea of the kind of book that this is:
The next result was in December 2016, when it appeared in an article in the Christian Post. Since then it has spread to various other sites.
The author of the 2015 book, Carol Kelly-Gangi, appears to be a professional writer, who works for publishers, and has turned out a number of books of this sort. In this kind of hack-work, the book is commissioned by the publisher, and the format prescribed, and the writer compiles the thing from whatever sources they have.
In this case the format seems to require a quotation of some sort in italics. I wonder whether in this case the “quote” was simply composed by the writer?
At all events there is no sign of the quotation prior to this book.
I suspect that AI will take over this sort of “publishing” soon. Who knows. It might improve things.
Possibly! Indeed perhaps we could see this as an example of a pre-AI “hallucination”?
It is a patchwork of Scripture… Very weird. Somebody really loves James 1, I guess?
Of course you recognize this as a “mash-up” (as the kids say) of James 1:17–
“Every good and perfect gift is from above…”
and Ephesians 2:8–
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”
(Both NIV)
Did you attempt to contact the author and ask what their source for the quote was?
The “quote” appears in a blog post from 2010:
https://catholicfamilyvignettes.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/patron-saints-for-2010/
No source given either. The blog has been inactive since 2015. Also in 2014 and probably others:
https://cookiecrumbstoliveby.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/scurvy-limeys-victorian-stockings-and-st-nicholas/
The author of the book may have taken it from any of these.
I see several meme and holy card posts (ie, image only) that allege to have quotes from Nicholas of Myra, including one about the body being a temple to be guarded, and one about correcting hearts. Is this maybe from some sermon book, from a different Nicholas?
@James, thank you. I’d not recognised the Ephesians reference!
@STRT I did try to find contact details, but failed.
@Diego Well done to find those! So it is indeed earlier still.
On Bluesky, A.K.A. Adam comments:
It reads to me as an lightly-edited paraphrase from the Epistle of James….
‘God who gives’ = Jas 1:5
‘Good and perfect gift’ = Jas 1:7
‘Imitators of God’ = Eph 5:1
‘by grace, through faith, not of yourselves’ = Eph 2:8
And God’s generosity returns to James 1:5