ST. NICHOLAS SAVING THE CITY IN TIME OF FAMINE 80 A. Lorenzetti. (Florence.) NORMAN BAPTISMAL FONT AT WINCHESTER 84 ST. NICHOLAS SAVES THE KNIGHTS ABOUT TO BE BEHEADED 86 F. Pesellino. (Florence.) TRIUMPHAL CAR OF ST. LUCY AT SYRACUSE IN SICILY 112 IMAGES OF BRETON SAINTS 116 ST. NICHOLAS SAVES THE CITY FROM FAMINE 118 Beato Angelico. (Rome.) ST. NICHOLAS RESCUES SEAMEN 122 L. Monaco. (Florence.) ST. NICHOLAS IN THE MOSAICS OF ST. MARK’S IN VENICE 142 ST. NICHOLAS CHAPTER I ST. NICHOLAS, SANTA CLAUS, AND KRIS KRINGLE The good St. Nicholas, the bishop-saint, is strangely little known in America. He has lent his name to a church here and there and to a popular magazine for children, his protégés. But how many people are familiar with the story of his life? How many even know the date of his own special festival? There are countries in which his memory is not thus neglected, in which the festival of St. Nicholas is one of the important events of the year. An English newspaper of the first year of the war has this to report concerning the Belgian custom: The feast of St. Nicholas, December 6th, was celebrated at the Belgian refugee camp at Earle’s Court, England, with presents for the children, stockings hung up, a Christmas tree, and all the rest of the children’s festivities which we associate with Christmas eve and Christmas morning. This was not a mere anticipation of Christmas. St. Nicholas’ day, and not Christmas, is the children’s festival in Holland, Belgium, and parts of Germany, and we have borrowed the hanging up of stockings from them and turned it into a Christmas custom.[1] Letters from Belgian children, exiled in France for more than two years, offer further evidence of the intimate and friendly relationship existing between St. Nicholas and his Belgian children. Here is a touching passage from a letter written by a little eight-year-old Belgian girl from Varengeville-sur-Mer, in France, to an American “godmother”; the adult English used in translation fails to reproduce the naïve charm of the original. We have just had a grand visit from St. Nicholas. He came in person to bring us some nice things as he used to do when we were home. We were playing when, all at once, we heard singing at one side and saw a bishop, ringing a bell. What joy, it is St. Nicholas! We kneeled down to receive his blessing, and then sang a song and went into the house. St. Nicholas talked to us and, best of all, he gave us some presents. He gave us an orange, a barley sweet, a cake, and some games. My, how happy we were! GERMAINE BARBEZ. Le 16 dec., 1916.