Who was St. Valentine? Was he someone that the Catholic Church acknowledged as a miracle worker and therefore bestowed sainthood upon him? Or was he a rabble-rouser who used love as a tool to offset injustice in a land of oppression? What does he mean to us?
Legends and view abound. Some believe Valentine was a clergyman while the third century A.D. Living under the autocracy of Roman rule. As the story goes, when Emperor Claudius Ii decreed that young men must remain single in order to become good fighting soldiers, Valentine married lovers in underground and was eventually put to death for doing so.
Valentine
Legends differ in the details of his actions yet agree that Valentine spent some time in a Roman prison and, perhaps, sent the first Valentine. He is reported to have fallen in love with a young woman who visited him in the Roman dungeon. Supposedly, before his death, he sent her a letter and signed it "From your Valentine." Hence, we have our present custom of sending cards and notes of love on February 14th with similar wording.
There are many supplementary stories surrounding the history of Valentine. His name's attachment to February 14th involves the Christian Church's desire to merge a religious holiday with a pagan ritual that occurred in mid-February. This holiday was called Lupercalia. It was illustrious on February 15th and complicated a rite of purification prefacing a fertility festival in honor of the god, Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. Valentine's theme of love and compassion merged truly with a pagan fertility celebration. Though the death of Valentine was most likely on a dissimilar date, we now celebrate his sainthood on February 14th as a day for romance.
No matter what the truth may be, all of the stories identify the love, compassion, heroism and romantic nature of Valentine. He paid with his life for the love that he gave so selflessly. He is a model, an example, of how love exhibits itself. His recognition of the heart's desire to unite with another overcame an abusive and cruel law.
No matter which version of the Valentine story we settle to believe and make real for our own life, Valentine remains a model of altruistic love that can truly be seen as unconditional. When love contains conditions, it is not love. Then, it becomes something else. Valentine's love had to be unconditional if he was going to stand steady under the oppression of the times. He mirrors for us the demonstration of love in its finest form. It is the absolute and true giving of oneself with no conditions or restraints.
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Why Does Valentine's Day Mean Love?
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