Saint Nicholas: Life and legend

It is a long, long journey from the pious, thin Bishop Nicholas of Myra to the roly-poly dispenser of gifts on Christmas Eve. At various stops along the way, Saint Nicholas was invoked as the patron of a motley array, including (among others) maidens and barren wives, sailors and infants, thieves and financiers, even pirating Vandals! Why the tremendous appeal of a bishop in one of the remote corners of the Roman Empire? How did he become the jolly denizen of the North Pole?
Here, lavishly illustrated with pictures that allow us to see as well as to read about Nicholas's transformation, is the story of an enigmatic figure. In many ways, Nicholas was a paradox: the same man who saved three young girls from being sold into slavery publicly slapped the face of a suspected heretic at the Council of Nicaea.
Martin Ebon peppers his lively tale with other little-known facts and legends. In these pages, the dead are raised, ships are steered without rudders, apparitions appear to condemned men, demons set the sea boiling, and a temple is singlehandedly razed. Ours is not the first age to regard Nicholas with wonder.
As important as the legends themselves are the reactions and emotions they arouse. What has been called "the most famous editorial ever written" contains the often repeated line: "Yes, Virginia, there is as Santa Claus!" One of the most familiar poems in the English language is "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," known to many as "The Night Before Christmas." Both appear here as well as the appealing stories behind them.
As the years flow by, the author points out, we come to know both less and more of this most popular of saints. We lose and forget the details of his life, what he did and did not do, what he looked like when he walked the streets of Myra. But paradoxically, with the accumulation of time it seems the spirit of the man drops its legendary, miraculous trappings and shines forth the more beautifully. We partake yearly of what must have been Nicholas's childlike joy, generosity, and concern for others: the soul of the saint himself. As Saint Nicholas persuasiviely argues, we have won the better part.