Today February 14

Today is the lovely and traditional feast of St. Valentine, d. c. 280. You might hear a lot of complicated stuff about this day: there were not one, not two, but THREE St. Valentines celebrated on this day, all of whose stories get hopelessly confused; Valentine was a priest who secretly married soldiers to their fiancees, against imperial orders -- thus his patronage of lovers; this is the day birds were thought to choose a mate, etc., etc. I suppose all of that is true, but in the oldest sources there's nothing even remotely linking Valentine with sweethearts (even avian ones) and no confusion about who he was. He was a priest, tried by Claudius for the crime of idolatry and refusal to adore the imperial gods. In fact, his faith was blatantly called "superstition." No doubt some of us in today's society can relate.

Fearless Valentine retorted, "If you but knew the grace of God, you would not say such things!" He averred that the emperor and the prosecutors would turn from the gods which he called "idols" and to worship of the one, true God -- if they but knew the grace of God. They were offended that he was impugning the holiness of the Roman gods. And he was! All he had to say about them is that they acted like wretched human beings and that if they existed at all, they would be full of all uncleanness (hard to argue with, if you hear their stories). The emperor thundered, "If Christ is true God, why do you not tell me the truth?" Valentine: "Truly Christ alone is God! If you believe him, you will be saved!" And Claudius was actually wavering, but the prefect and those around him panicked and said, "The emperor is being led astray! How shall we give up what we have believed from infancy?" And that did it; the emperor would hear no more from Valentine cast him into prison and ordered him beheaded.

In a sweet sideline (of great antiquity), Valentine cured his jailer's daughter of blindness -- with the result that all the family was converted to the faith, saying, "Lord Jesus Christ, true light, you have this day enlightened this house!"

Perhaps a nice analogy could be made with the "light of Christ" and the "light of love" -- thus the habit of choosing sweethearts during this spring saint's feast, but I think it's a stretch. Anyway, happy St. Valentine's Day everybody!