Saint Valentine

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Although Saint Valentine’s Day in the United States is focused on candy, flowers, and chocolate, along with greeting cards and a little Cherub who shoots love arrows into the heart of your person of affection, I am not going to talk about the commercialization of Saint Valentine’s Day. Instead I will focus on Saint Valentine the person.

Saint Valentine is the Patron Saint of Love, Young People, and Happy Marriages. Saint Valentine Feast Day is February 14^th.

Valentine was a holy Priest in Rome, who, with Saint 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. When attempts to make Valentine renounce his faith didn’t work, they commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded.  The sentence was executed on February 14, about the year 270.

The origin of Saint Valentine remains somewhat of a mystery. One opinion is that he was a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up his Christian faith. Some say Saint Valentine was a Temple Priest who was jailed for defiance during the reign of Claudius. Whoever he was Valentine was a real person because archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to Saint Valentine. In 496 DC Pope Gelasius marked February 14^th as a celebration day in honor of the martyrdom of Valentine.

Perhaps this next item will give you an idea where the concept of handing a card or note to someone and commenting “Be My Valentine” or “From Your Valentine” originated.

Saints are not supposed to rest in peace. They are expected to keep busy performing miracles and to intercede. Just because you are in jail or dead is no excuse for non-performance of the supernatural. There is one legend which says, while awaiting his execution, Valentine restored the sight of his jailer’s blind daughter. Another legend states that on the eve of his death he penned a farewell note to the jailer’s daughter signing it, “From Your Valentine.”

Becx is Catholic and she enjoys honoring the Saints. It saddens us that Saint Valentine’s Day has become a major commercial holiday in the United States where candy, flowers, chocolates, and little Cherubs with a bow with love arrows, overshadows what Saint Valentine, the Patron Saint of Love, Young People, and Happy Marriages, stands for.