“Valentine’s Day”

What comes to your mind when you think of ‘Valentine’s Day?’ Al Capone, Buggs Moran, The St. Valentine’s day Massacre? Chocolate hearts, little angels, roses, cards, an expensive dinner, what? There were seven people in history that seem to be associated with ‘Valentine’s Day,’ “SEVEN!” However, only three seem to have any historical significance; A Roman priest martyred under Emperor Claudius II in 269; A Bishop of Terni martyred the same century; And a man in North Africa we know nothing about!

Most of the evidence seems to go with the priest martyred under Claudius. Rome was very unfriendly towards Christians at this time, very unfriendly! Not long before Claudius, Diocletian went on a rampage to stamp out Christianity. Around 215 ad he burned a church to the ground full of people celebrating the ‘Nativity’ on the 25th of December. Constantine later gave an edict in 313 making Christianity legal and in 381 a state religion, but 50-100 years earlier they were martyred, stoned and burned Christians for kicks.

However, during the reign of Claudius II we have a man named ‘Valentine.’ Claudius gave an edict forbidding marriage, because it hurt his enlistment of soldiers. He said, “Married men make bad soldiers.” He also hated Christians! However, our man ‘Valentine’ continued to help and marry Christians secretly so he was arrested, imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to death! Valentine continued to write to Christians while in prison and would sign his letters, “Remember Your Valentine!” Especially his last one. The prison guard and judge named Asterius had a blind daughter that would visit Valentine for hours and fell in love with him but he was a priest 😦 Tradition tells us that Valentine prayed for her and that she was healed, so her father and her entire family were converted and later they were all martyred with Valentine!

On February 14, 269 Valentine was given a chance to renounce his faith in Christ, which he bravely refused to do. So, he was stoned but refused to die! Then he was clubbed and still would not die! So, they finally cut his head off outside the “Flaminian Gate’ and then he died! In 469, 200 years later he was canonized as the ‘Saint of Love & Charity.’ He is also the Patron Saint of Epilepsy as he was also afflicted with that ailment. He was dropped from the Roman Catholic calendar in 1969, 1,500 years after being canonized and 1,700 years after being stoned, clubbed, and decapitated for his faith in Christ! (Thank You Very Much!!!) In 494 Pope Gelasius changed ‘St. Valentine’s Day’ to “The Feast of Purification” for the ‘Virgin Mary’ and sometime later the date was changed to February 2nd, forty days after December 25th the traditional birth date of Christ. That is when Mary went to the Temple to present herself before the Lord for purification, Luke 2:21-24. The word “Februa” is where we get the word February from, it is Latin for ‘Purification.’

Now how does “Cupid” fit into all this and what about all the other traditions? Oh, by the way, what are we celebrating on February 2nd besides the ‘Super-Bowl?’ Which wasn’t so super, a ground hog coming out of his hole to tell us its cold out! And they wear a tuxedo for that and jeans for Church to worship God! Go Figure! Well ‘Cupid’ in ancient Greece was ‘Eros’ (erotic) lustful, the son of Aphrodite and the son of Venus and he became the god of ‘Love & Beauty.’ His other name was “Amore” remember Dean Martin, “When the sun, hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s ‘amore.’ (love) Or was he before your time?

Anyway, when Valentine cured the jailer’s daughter of blindness, Cupid the love angel or Cherub became blind in her place. (Now is it starting to make sense?) Stay with me… His pleasure now is to bring a similar blindness to his victims and never cure them, hence the phrase, “Love is blind!” But love is not blind, it sees more not less, got it? Think about that for a minute, you’ll get it and then maybe not! Anyway, I never knew God created baby angels, or that angels had babies, did you? You learn something every day, especially on this internet! By the way, the flower for ‘Valentine’s Day’ is not Roses guys, it is the “Crocus! Which is supposed to blossom on or before February 14th. By the way, the 14th of the Lunar Month is also a full moon, so you are moon-struck!

Februa is the Latin word for, ‘Feast of Purification’ and Juno the wife of Jupiter is the goddess of love, is it all coming together now? Actually, we have been duped, guys! (Is there one p or two p’s in duped?)  Now why choose a ‘Valentine’ on February 14th? Tradition says, birds choose their mates on February 14th and that most birds have only one mate for life. By the way, the marriage phrase, “Till death do us part,” is not just for the birds! 🙂

Now there is a cultic tradition overshadowing ‘Valentine’s Day.’  So, what else is new! The ‘Feast of Lupercalia’ or the ‘Lover’s Festival’ celebrated on February 15th. Lupercalia was the longest running Roman pagan festival we know of. In fact, it was the last Roman festival to be given up, “The Love Feast!” Lupercus was the god of fertility; Lupercalia according to Webster was, ‘An ancient Roman festival celebrated on February 15th to ensure fertility of the people, their flocks and their fields.’ The priests ‘Luperci’ prayed to the wolf deity Lycaeus, at the cave of Palatine to protect their flocks and to make them fertile. Lycaeus was the mother of Romulus and Remus the founders of Rome! (Now is the fog clearing?) Marc Anthony was the master of the Luperci priests during his life and in 44 bc he offered the crown to Julius Caesar three times on February 15th. Speaking of Marc Anthony, he heard Cleopatra died so he killed himself. Then she heard he killed himself so she stuck her hand in an Asp nest and died, now there is a true ‘Valentine!’

A tradition on ‘Lupercalia’ was to put all the young maidens names in a box and the young men would pick one to be their partner during the festival and for the rest of the year. They would buy them gifts and wear their names on their sleeves for everyone to see for a full year, terminated only by death or marriage. Hence the phrase, “You wear your feelings on your sleeve!” This union usually ended in love or marriage, sort of like your girlfriend wearing your class ring around her neck in high school. Later the clergy tried to Christianize this Festival by putting the names of saints in the box to be emulated throughout the year, but it didn’t work! Many others feel that Pope Gelasius in 469 tried to Christianize Lupercalia with ‘St. Valentine’s Day’ and later with the ‘Purification of Mary’ on February 2nd but that never worked either! Today over one billion cards are sent in America alone, so maybe it should be called, “St. Hallmark Day” or “St. Hershey Day” as millions of pounds of chocolate are bought and distributed. In Japan the women buy the men chocolates on ‘Valentine’s Day.’ It must have been the influence of those early male missionaries, what do you think? 🙂

‘Valentine’s Day’ is all about “LOVE” but what is love? 100 years ago one of our well known encyclopedias discussed the word atom with only four lines but the topic of love took five pages. Today in that same encyclopedia the word atom has five pages and the word love is not even mentioned. We’ll talk about love next time. But until then, we’ll see you, “…Between The Lines…”

“Valentine’s Day” February 14, 2014 (Part #1) 2/8/14