href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@42969@[email protected]#Illus_3" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">St. Nicholas Scenes in the Stained Glass of Bourges Cathedral
From P. Lacroix, Science and Art in the Middle Ages.

34 Three Scenes from the Early Life of St. Nicholas
Beato Angelico. (Rome.) 38 The Young Clerk Strangled by the Devil
A. Lorenzetti. (Florence.) 42 St. Nicholas Restoring a Boy to his Father
Fresco at S. Croce, Florence. 46 St. Nicholas and the Murdered Schoolboys
L. di Bicci. (Metropolitan Museum, New York.) 48 Another Picture of the Same Scene
F. Pesellino. (Florence.) 50 St. Nicholas and the Three Maidens
A. Lorenzetti. (Florence.) 52 Another Picture of the Same Scene
Florentine School. (Louvre, Paris.) 54 Another Picture of the Same Scene
L. di Bicci (?). (Metropolitan Museum, New York.) 56 Madonna and Child and Various Saints
L. di Bicci. (Florence.) 60 St. Nicholas and the Money Lender
Fresco at S. Croce, Florence. 64 The Boy Nicholas Elected Bishop
A. Lorenzetti. (Florence.) 68 St. Nicholas Saving the City in Time of Famine
A. Lorenzetti. (Florence.) 80 Norman Baptismal Font at Winchester 84 St. Nicholas Saves the Knights about to be Beheaded
F. Pesellino. (Florence.) 86 Triumphal Car of St. Lucy at Syracuse in Sicily 112 Images of Breton Saints 116 St. Nicholas Saves the City from Famine
Beato Angelico. (Rome.) 118 St. Nicholas Rescues Seamen
L. Monaco. (Florence.) 122 St. Nicholas in the Mosaics of St. Mark’s in Venice 142

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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.