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| St. Valentine the Martyr |
St. Valentine is a martyr from before the year 312, commemorated on this 14th of February. He was probably martyred on that date, but nothing else is known of him. (A priest of Rome named Valentine, and bishop of Ternia also named Valentine), are both commemorated on 14th of February, and are now generally assumed that be the same person. In many parts of Europe, it was once said that birds began to pair off for the nesting season in mid-February. Since our forebears often spoke of a given day by naming a saint connected with it rather than by giving the month and the number of the day, we find them saying that birds choose their mates on St. Valentine's Day.
Historians have speculated that St. Valentine came to be given this title because his feast day fell around the time of Lupercalia, a pagan Roman festival of carnal love that later took on a more Christian character as well as the saint's name. For this to happen – if it is true – St. Valentine must have been highly regarded by the early Roman Christians. The saint is described as a brave, righteous and wise man and a kind and conscientious friend to those in need.
According to tradition, St. Valentine also cared deeply for the young: He taught lovers to read and write letters to one another, presented flowers to newlyweds and helped married couples in difficulties. As a priest in the 3rd century, and according to legend, St. Valentine ignored Emperor Claudius’ decree that no more marriages were to take place. Claudius had forbidden marriages because he believed that they cut down on his potential crop of soldiers. St. Valentine, viewing this as unjust, continued to marry people, encouraging Christian soldiers to marry their girlfriends despite the imperial prohibition, was caught in the act and sentenced to death. It is even said that a girl, one whom St. Valentine had healed of blindness, fell in love with him and visited him every night in prison. Before his execution on February 14th, he sent a note to the girl and signed it “From your Valentine.”
Permit me to reprint a portion of an article written last February 14, 2010 [Sunday] - Bulletin 15, Volume XLVII
Love and Forgiveness
Written by the Very Rev. Vladimir Berzonsky
"The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and forgiving sin and rebellion" (Numbers 14:18)
"All too rare that Forgiveness Sunday opening onto the Great Lent falls on the same day when our nation celebrates Valentine's Day -- and so serendipitous to merge those great spiritual virtues into one. Several legends surround St. Valentine, who is as elusive as our beloved St. Nicholas and almost as beloved -- at least in his legacy of love. Let's take the best known tale. It records him as a priest or maybe bishop imprisoned in Rome by Emperor Claudius II, and condemned to execution [as written above]. His meals were served by the daughter of the jailer, and it seems that he left on his tray for the girl to take away a brief message signed: from your Valentine.
To the extent that myth is true, it speaks to both love and forgiveness. Not the passion we think of as love, certainly not the sentiments of all the valentines sent on this day between lovers, but a natural affection, perhaps gratitude for some kindness or sympathy from an innocent maiden for an old gentleman who would soon be put to death. Assuming the saint had imbibed the attributes of the Lord whom had given His life in service, he was slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and forgiving his jailer, the emperor and of course the girl who brought his meals. Is it possible that he could forgive them without loving them? Hardly. Conversely, could he love them as sinners without forgiving them? Again, not so."
Surely, as we give candy and flowers, and we also send cards to our loved ones, for most of us, like St. Valentine, these are expressions of a deeper kind of love - God's Love! Let this Valentine's Day be a reminder to all of us that perhaps we need not just give, but "give up" a little of ourselves for the sake of another to indetifiy with the true meaning of Valentine's Day -
