A studious, kind and gentle youth, at the age of 16 Nicholas became an Augustinian novice and was a student of the Blessed Angelus de Scarpetti.

Nicholas, who had had visions of angels reciting "to Tolentino", in 1274 took this as a sign to move to that city, where he lived the rest of his life.

Nicholas worked to counteract the decline of morality and religion which came with the development of city life in the late thirteenth century.

[4] Once, when weak after a long fast, he received a vision of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Saint Augustine.

[5] In Tolentino, Nicholas worked as a peacemaker in a city torn by strife between the Guelphs and Ghibellines who, in the conflict for control of Italy, supported the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor respectively.

[4] During his life, Nicholas is said to have received visions, including images of Purgatory, which friends ascribed to his lengthy fasts.

An apparition of the saint, it is said, once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames.

According to the Peruvian chronicler Antonio de la Calancha, it was St. Nicholas of Tolentino who made possible a permanent Spanish settlement in the rigorous, high-altitude climate of Potosí, Bolivia.

In Ireland, Augustinian churches and friaries historically marked his feast day with a ceremony distributing bread, sometimes with his likeness on the loaves.

The façade of the church has scantly ornamentation and its architectural symmetry is lost amid and the various forms assumed the windows and the main entrance.

[13] In the province of Nueva Ecija, St. Nicholas is being venerated as the titular of the historic Cabanatuan Cathedral where General Antonio Luna was assassinated in 1899.

In Dimiao, Bohol, the feast of San Nicolas de Tolentino, patron saint of the parish church built between 1797 and 1815, is also celebrated every September 10.

The area is also considered the original site of the landing of Miguel López de Legazpi's armada on April 17, 1565, and became the embryo of a settlement which Legaspi established.

San Nicolas was a vibrant town during the Spanish Period, the spawning ground for the Revolution against Spain in 1898, and the birthplace of Cebuano musical legends of the 20th century.

[16] In Guimbal, Iloilo, the construction of the San Nicolas de Tolentino Church and convent began between 1769 and 1774 and it was made of coral stone and yellow sandstone.

It was consecrated on August 10, 2022 and declared as a diocesan shrine on February 25, 2023 by the then fourth Bishop of Balanga and church's acting rector and parish priest Ruperto Santos.

The shortbread is made of butter, egg yolk, flour and coconut milk poured in wooden molds, then baked.