February 14 Happy Valentine’s Day
Valentine: Bishop and Martyr
Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is a widely recognized third-century Roman saint commemorated on February 14 and associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of courtly love.
Nothing is reliably known of St. Valentine except his name and the fact that he was martyred on February 14 on Via Flaminia in the north of Rome. It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to be identified as one saint or two saints of the same name. Several differing martyrologies have been added to later hagiographies that are unreliable. For these reasons this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969.
But the Martyr Valentinus who died on the 14th of February on the Via Flaminia close to the Milvian Bridge in Rome still remains in the list of officially recognized saints for local veneration. Saint Valentine's Church in Rome, was built in 1960 for the needs of the Olympic Village, and continues as a modern, well-visited parish church.
Additionally, today, Saint Valentine's Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church.
The Western tradition of celebrating romantic love on this saint’s day is not rooted in a romantic circumstance. The following is told by Father Frank O’Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland:
Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance. That's what Valentine's day is all about, right? Well, maybe not.
The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn't romantic at all -- at least not in the traditional sense. Here is the real story of St. Valentine, the man behind the holiday.
"He was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church," Father O'Gara explains. “He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died."
"I think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine lived," says Father O'Gara. "Polygamy would have been much more popular than just one woman and one man living together. And yet some of them seemed to be attracted to Christian faith. But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged. So it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to do about this.
"The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the edict.
Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius II. There are legends surrounding Valentine's actions while in prison.
"One of the men who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius, whose daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the young girl with such astonishing effect that Asterius himself became Christian as a result.
“In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius' daughter. He inspired today's romantic missives by signing it, ‘from your Valentine.’
"What Valentine means to me as a priest," explains Father O'Gara, "is that there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that—even to the point of death.
“Valentine's martyrdom has not gone unnoticed by the general public. In fact, Whitefriars Street Church is one of three churches that claim to house the remains of Valentine. Today, many people make the pilgrimage to the church to honor the courage and memory of this Christian saint.
"Valentine has come to be known as the patron saint of lovers. Before you enter into a Christian marriage you want some sense of God in your life—some great need of God in your life. And we know, particularly in the modern world, many people are meeting God through his Son, Jesus Christ.
"If Valentine were here today, he would say to married couples that there comes a time where you're going to have to suffer. It's not going to be easy to maintain your commitment and your vows in marriage. Don't be surprised if the 'gushing' love that you have for someone changes to something less gushing but maybe much more mature.
"So on the day of the marriage they have to take that into context," Father O'Gara says. "Love -- human love and sexuality is wonderful, and blessed by God—but it must be in the shadow of the cross.”
So, in light of the information we have about St. Valentine, what should we do to anchor our own lives, our own relationships, our own core beliefs to the truth we hold dear? This good man gave himself in order for a sacrament to be bestowed upon others that he never received for himself. He believed in the sanctity marriage and he died because he lived to extol what he knew to be right.
How willing are we, in this age when “good is called evil and evil is called good,” Isaiah 5:20, to stand up for what we know to be God’s immutable truth? Are we willing to risk everything we count dear; are we willing to sacrifice everything we count precious—even life itself—in order to stand for the tenets of the faith that are eternal?
Will we bow before the unjust laws of godless men or will we devote ourselves even unto death to the just laws of our wholly righteous and completely holy God, that His truth might be extolled among men?
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