VALENTINE'S DAY

Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Proverbs 10:12

Imagine for a moment, you had been told by the Pope that you are now the Patron Saint of lovers. I guess that after your friends were done with the mindless euphemisms and teasing, you'd catch your breath and ask just what that means.

With Valentine's Day coming up, my wife and editor asked if I had it in mind to write about it. I started to last year but I was distracted and never got back to it. Now that the question was raised, I realized how little I knew about the day I only knew as a time guys watch gangster movies, eat chocolate and spend money on the women they love. I was amazed when I looked into the subject.

St. Valentine
Born: ?
Birthplace: Roman Empire
Died: c. 270 (beheading - ?)
Best Known As: The namesake of Valentine's Day

Those are the facts all sources agree on but getting to those facts, I found some variances. However, his life story should be made into a movie right now. Here is a small synopsis of the most common story.

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, condemned him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14.

Guys, do you still want to be the Patron Saint of Lovers? Who, in this world of delicate doilies would stand up to any persecution; especially the threat of beheading?

Some of the stories pointed to other men as the real St. Valentine but all were tortured and beheaded for defying Claudius II. That's where the confusion is but I'm willing to believe the story posted by the Catholic Encyclopedia because it is accepted everywhere I researched. The fact remains that the man existed because archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to Saint Valentine. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.

These basic facts don't tell how or why we started sending greeting cards or why it has become a day to indulge loved ones until we have amassed a new high in debts.

This is where the story really became fun.

The 14th was also a designated a feast day, until 1969, when it was dropped from the Roman Catholic calendar, to honor two Christian saints (at least one named Saint Valentine) martyred by the Roman Emperor Claudius II Gothicus. There is a little bit of love stuff in this part, though as the reason Saint Valentine was killed was that he continued to marry young couples even though Claudius forbade it. Apparently Claudius thought that married soldiers weren't as good as single soldiers.

I should have been around then. All I would have had to do to get out of the Army was to be married. In the 60's guys pretended to be gay or live in exile in Canada to avoid military service. Anyway, back to the story.

Legends vary on how the martyr's name became connected with romance. The date of his death may have become mingled with the feast of Lupercalia, a pagan festival of love, or with the ancient belief that birds first mate in the middle of February. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read, "For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate".

One touching legend has it that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine". For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each other their Valentines.

In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is much commercialized. A cool fact is that the town of Loveland, Colorado, does a huge post office business around February 14. The spirit of good continues as valentines are sent out with sentimental verses to more than just wives and lovers as children even exchange valentine cards at school or at least they did when I was a kid.

As good as it sounds though, I don't want to be the Patron Saint of lovers. I'm not afraid of persecution and I'm not even bothered by the threat of beheading. It just wouldn't be the same sending a "Phil" card. That's just weird and it could mean the end of Hallmark cards as we know them.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau, (1817 - 1862)

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if [a] man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
Song of Solomon 8:7