text:  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.