St Valentine's official feast day was first held on 14 February in the year At the time this feast day was chosen to replace a pagan practice which the Christian Church was trying to stamp out. It wasn't until the Middle Ages that St Valentine was connected with courtly love. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer built on the legends surrounding St Valentine and began the tradition of associating Saint Valentine with romantic love that we celebrate today.
Judges were chosen by women, depending on their ability to recite poetry. These judges dealt with issues around marriage contracts and with acts of violence against women. Representing love, young people and happy marriages, St Valentine's Day became the day for exchanging love messages. The earliest known love notes were written on handmade cards, often with extravagant verses of poetry describing how much the recipient was loved. These beautiful creations were elaborately decorated with pictures, lace and ribbons and were treasured items kept for many years.
Over time, the tradition of sending cards became more widespread as postage services and printing improved. The saint was beheaded soon after. Most of this explains why St. Valentine whichever Valentine you choose is the patron of happy marriages, lovers, love, young people and greetings.
It is less clear why he is also a patron of epileptics and fainting — though perhaps Valentine the healer can be thanked for that — and of beekeepers. Honey, though is sweet, and maybe that gives us some link to candy and chocolates. Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia; franciscanmedia. All rights reserved. He is the patron saint of lovers, epileptics, and beekeepers. By some accounts, St. Valentine was a Roman priest and physician who suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus about Subsequently, question is, was there a Saint Valentine?
Valentine beheaded. On February 14, around the year A. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off.
What is the essence of Valentine? Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. The true essence of Valentine Day is true love. It is supposed to be a day when lovers, married couples, reaffirm their love and genuine affection for one another. What is the real meaning of Valentine? But as a historian of Christianity, I can tell you that at the root of our modern holiday is a beautiful fiction.
Chaucer may have read the hagiographies of Valentine in local English versions. Literary acquaintances of Chaucer were among the first to do so in print. Valentine became more popular as a patron of love and lovers in two contexts: among aristocratic circles and in folk custom.
While they composed verses to honour the holiday, others exchanged gifts. In the 19th century, historians scoured the sources of classical history for evidence of celebrations in mid-February. They found Lupercalia, a holiday associated with Faunus or Pan, celebrated with a carnival on the Ides of February 15 February.
Colleges or clubs of young noblemen sacrificed goats or dogs on an altar in the cave where, according to legend, Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, were suckled by the famous she-wolf.
According to Plutarch, they cut strips for thongs from the bloody hides and ran half-naked around the Palatine hill of Rome, striking nubile women with their thongs to confer fertility. Supposedly, the young men also drew lots for sexual partners. Other recent scholars have blamed instead Emperor Claudius, who allegedly banned young men from getting married in the third century.
Claudius needed more soldiers for his campaigns, so the argument goes, hence soldiers were required by law to remain single while serving.
Yet in reality, Claudius never forbade marriage because he was too busy securing his eastern frontier to decree laws in Rome.
How ironic that modern celebrants have chosen Cupid — Greco-Roman god of erotic love — as one of the major symbols of the day when Saint Valentine lost his head. The Vatican removed Valentine from its universal calendar of saints in because his legend lacked historical evidence. Catholics are still free to venerate the patron saint of epilepsy if they wish, but it is not a liturgical obligation. Like the rest of the world, devout fans of the saint are free to focus instead on choosing cards and gifts for their loved ones, although believers have found a way to honour the ancient saint and, at the same time, celebrate the holiday of love.
At Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Dublin, the Franciscan church that claims to have relics of Valentine, petitioners leave notes to the saint begging for guidance, cures, and love. No-one is sure exactly who Valentine or Valentines was or were ; or why Christians of late antiquity came to revere him.
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