http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20090214/LIFESTYLE/902140326
BY BRIAN PASSEY • bpassey@thespectrum.com • February 14, 2009
Valentine’s Day today is a celebration of love and lovers, a time for hearts and flowers and chocolate and cheesy paper “Valentines.”
Yet the story of St. Valentine himself is not so cheery.
Yes, he is the patron saint of love and lovers. He’s the patron saint of affianced couples, engaged couples, happy marriages, greetings, travelers and young people.He’s also the patron saint of plagues, fainting and epilepsy. So who was this St. Valentine?
Makings of a saint
According to the saint listings on Catholic.org, Valentine was a holy priest in Rome. When the emperor was unable to make Valentine renounce his faith, the emperor commanded him to be clubbed and stoned. When that didn’t kill Valentine the emperor had him beheaded.He died on Feb. 14 in the year 269 or 270 AD.
That’s one story. Several legends exist about a number of possibly different St. Valentines.Archeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to St. Valentine and in 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked Feb. 14 as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom, according to Catholic.org.
Additionally he appeared in “The Nuremberg Chronicle,” an illustrated book printed in 1493. In the book are a woodcut portrait of the saint and a passage indicating his name was Valentinus, a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius the Goth. According to the story, Valentinus was marrying Christian couples and aiding other Christians persecuted under Claudius’ rule, which was considered a crime.
Shortly after having Valentinus arrested and imprisoned, Claudius took a liking to his prisoner. Then Valentinus made the grave error of trying to convert the emperor and was condemned to death. Here’s where the clubbing, stoning and beheading part comes into the story.
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There is a more romantic part. One legend says Valentinus restored the sight of his jailer’s blind daughter while he was awaiting his execution. Another legend says that on the eve of his death he penned a farewell note to the jailer’s daughter.
He signed it: “From your Valentine.”A model for todayToday St. Valentine is recognized as one of thousands of saints within the Roman Catholic Church. The Rev. Gustavo Vidal, priest at St. George Catholic Church, says Catholics recognize the day these saints died, often mentioning their names during the celebration of mass.During mass today, Vidal will mention the name of St. Valentine.
“Saints are regular people that give their lives for Christ,” Vidal says.Some are martyrs. Others are virgins. What matters is that they modeled their lives after Jesus Christ and did the will of God in their lives. They are often examples of hope, charity or chastity.
“The saints are like the models we have in the Catholic Church for holiness,” he continues.People become saints when someone presents their name to the Vatican with a cause for sainthood. However, the pope is the only one with authority to grant sainthood. If sainthood is granted that saint is forever remembered on the day he or she died.
Saints are primarily recognized within the Catholic Church.
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Although the Episcopal Church has many practices in common with the Catholic Church, saints do not play as large of a role, says the Rev. Susan Wiltsey-Smith, priest at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church in Cedar City.
“In the average Episcopal parish they don’t do much with the saints unless they are named for a saint, like we are here at St. Jude’s,” she says. St. Jude is the patron saint of difficult causes, she says. The priest applies this in the understanding that there’s no situation they can’t solve as a community.Wiltsey-Smith says the Episcopal Church has a book called “Lesser Feasts and Fasts” which contains the names of people who receive a sainthood status, but they don’t have to be ancient martyrs. It could contain, for example, Sojourner Truth, the former slave, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate who died in 1883.Priests at the larger Episcopal cathedrals who celebrate mass daily may read from “Lesser Feasts and Fasts,” telling about the saint of the day, Wiltsey-Smith says.
