The late 1970s were a sad time for America. The Vietnam War had just ended. Big cities fell in the grip of crime and neglect as the 1975 fiscal crisis pushed New York City to the brink of bankruptcy.
The gist of it is this: In 1087 two Italian cities, Venice and Bari, raced to be the first to steal the bones of St. Nicholas—known to us as Santa Claus—from a basilica in what is now southern Turkey.