Interesting. But this is what I found so far about Saint Nicholas.

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=44 Paton Saint for children or sailors. Where the prostitutes come in according to this site is that as Bishop is believed to have given money to the poor families that did not have a dowry to marry off their daughters. If the daughters could not marry, they had to turn to prostitution.

Do you have a link to where you found out he was the patron saint of prostitutes? Would be interesting to check it out.

It's listed as a subject of his patronage on Wikipedia. But haha, of course it is taken out of context.

But for traditional Christianity, being the patron saint of prostitutes would BE trying to help them escape from it. The patron saint of those dying from sickness doesn't actually make people die of sickness or want them to. Remember, since Paul's faction won at Nicea prostitution = absolute evil.