Santa Claus

St. Nicholas Saves Three Innocents From Death

Apropos of nothing at all (except I'm sort of generally musing these days about how hard realities get translated into jolly little legends), this work by my favorite painter, Ilya Repin, reminds me of an old pastor of ours who used to delight in preaching about St. Nicholas being stripped of his bishopric for slapping Arius at an ecumenical council. The homily could differ, but the last line was always,

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. But there's no Mrs. Claus.

Anyway, hurrah for St. Nicholas, a tough old bird.