The Legend of Saint Nicholas by Anselm Grün (review)

The operative word here is “legend,” or more properly, several of the legends surrounding the works of fourth-century bishop Nicholas of Myra (in what’s now known as Turkey). Some of the tales may be familiar to children who celebrate the saint, particularly in his December gift-bringing guise. Grün relates the story of Nicholas tossing bags of gold through the open window of a poor man’s house as dowries for his three daughters, and the story of tempest-tossed sailors who are saved by Nicholas walking on the water and calming the sea. Here also appear less frequently told episodes of the saint’s saving a town from famine, and a posthumous miracle involving a stingy father and his drowned son. The luminous but slightly blurred, doll-like figures in Ferri’s artwork are appropriate to the tone of Grün’s narration, and they will make a pleasant seasonal contrast to the snow and starlight settings that mark most Christmas picture books. What’s missing, though, is any emphasis on Saint Nicholas’ actual life and non-legendary works (he was, after all, a cleric: imprisoned at one point, active in the Council of Nicaea at another), and at the very least an endnote comment to that effect would have been welcome. That, however, will have to wait for a later moment. Of immediate concern is getting those shoes outside the door at night on December fifth, in anticipation of Saint Nicholas’s generosity.