 In an age of sickness, in a time of rage, in an epoch when tyrants take their seats beneath the white domes of capitals, I call upon St. Nicholas, gift giver, light bringer, wonder worker, who saved the living from drowning and pasted together the dead from their pickling jars, who even after death gave of himself in medicinal ooze. I ask St. Nicholas to tell us a tale to pass a winter night so that when we rise in the morning, we may feel resolute in the new dawn.