Ledyvine and monastery of Europe." The Catholic Encyclopedia
also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early
martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a
number of companions, but nothing more is known about him. Saint Valentine's
head was preserved in the abbey of New Minster, Winchester, and venerated.
February 14 is celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in various
Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of 'commemoration' in
the calendar of saints in the Anglican Communion. In addition, the feast day of
Saint Valentine is also given in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church.
However, in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the
feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman
Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the
following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it
is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known
of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14."
The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where
relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by
Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Second Vatican Council
calendar. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. Valentine's Day is celebrated on
July 6, in which Saint Valentine, the Roman presbyter, is honoured;
furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox Church observes the feast of Hieromartyr
Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, on July 30.
St Valentine baptizing St Lucilla, Jacopo Bassano
J.C. Ledyvine Cooper, in The Dictionary of Christianity, writes that
Saint Valentine was "a priest of Rome who was imprisoned for succouring
persecuted Christians." Contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most
probably destroyed during this Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th
century. In the 5th or 6th century, a work called Passio Marii et Marthae
published a story of martyrdom for Saint Valentine of Rome, perhaps by
borrowing tortures that happened to other saints, as was usual in the
literature of that period. The same events are also found in Bede's
Martyrology, which was compiled in the 8th century.
It states that Saint
Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor
Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion
with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save
his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity
instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported
to have Ledyvine performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer
Asterius. The jailer's daughter and his forty-four member household (family
members and servants) came to believe in Jesus and were baptized.
A later Passio repeated the legend, adding that Pope Julius
I built a church over his sepulchre (it is a confusion with a 4th-century
tribune called Valentino who donated land to build a church at a time when
Julius was a Pope). The legend was picked up as fact by later martyrologies,
starting by Bede's martyrology in the 8th century. It was repeated in the 13th
century, in Legenda Aurea.
There is an additional embellishment to The Golden Legend,
which according to Henry Ansgar Kelly, was added centuries later, and widely
repeated. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he is supposed to
have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to the
daughter of his jailer Asterius, who was no longer blind, signing as "Your
Valentine." The expression "From your Valentine" was later
adopted by modern Valentine letters.This legend has been published by both
American Greetings and The History Channel.
Saint Valentine of Terni and his disciples
John Foxe, an English historian, as well as the Order of
Carmelites, state that Saint Valentine was buried in the Church of Praxedes in
Rome, located near the cemetery of Saint Hippolytus. This order says that
according to legend, "Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree
near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and
friendship."
Another embellishment suggests that Saint Valentine
performed clandestine Christian weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to
marry. The Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly forbade this in order to grow
his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. However,
this supposed marriage ban was never issued, and in fact Claudius II told his
soldiers to take two or three women for themselves after his victory over the
Goths.
According to legend, in order "to remind these men of
their vows and God’s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from
parchment", giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a
possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine's Day.
Saint Valentine supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring,
customarily worn on the hands of Christian bishops with an image of Cupid
engraved in it, a recognizable symbol associated with love that was legal under
the Roman Empire; Roman soldiers would recognize the ring and ask him to
perform marriage for them. Probably due to the association with Saint
Valentine, amethyst has become the birthstone of February, which is thought to
attract love.
While the European folk traditions connected with Saint
Valentine and St. Valentine's Day have become marginalized by the modern
Anglo-American customs connecting the day with romantic love, there are some
remaining associations connecting the saint with the advent of spring.[citation
needed]
While the custom of sending cards, flowers, chocolates and
other gifts originated in the UK, Valentine's Day still remains connected with
various regional customs in England. In Norfolk, a character called 'Jack'
Valentine knocks on the rear door of houses leaving sweets and presents for
children. Although he was leaving treats, many children were scared of this
mystical person.
In Slovenia, Saint Valentine or Zdravko was one of the
saints of spring, the saint of good health and the patron of beekeepers and pilgrims.
A proverb says that "Saint Valentine brings the keys of roots".
Plants and flowers start to grow on this day. It has been celebrated as the day
when the first work in the vineyards and in the fields commences. It is also
said that birds propose to each other or marry on that day. Another proverb
says "Valentin – prvi spomladin" ("Valentine — the first spring saint"),
as in some places (especially White Carniola), Saint Valentine marks the
beginning of spring. Valentine's Day has only recently been celebrated as the
day of love. The day of love was traditionally March 12, the Saint Gregory's
day, or February 22, Saint Vincent's Day. The patron of love was Saint Anthony,
whose day has been celebrated on June 13.
Connection with romantic love[
There is no evidence of any link between St. Valentine's Day
and the rites of the ancient Roman festival, despite many claims by many authors.[
The celebration of Saint Valentine did not have any romantic connotations until
Chaucer's poetry about "Valentines" in the 14th century.
Popular modern sources claim links to unspecified
Greco-Roman February holidays alleged to be devoted to fertility and love to
St. Valentine's Day, but prior to Chaucer in the 14th century, there were no
links between the Saints named Valentinus and romantic love Earlier links as
described above were focused on sacrifice rather than romantic love. In the
ancient Athenian calendar the period between mid-January and mid-February was
the month of Gamelion, dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and
Hera.[citation needed]
In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia, observed February 13–15, was an
archaic rite connected to fertility. Lupercalia was a festival local to the
city of Rome. The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning "Juno the
purifier" or "the chaste Juno", was celebrated on February
13–14. Pope Gelasius I (492–496) abolished Lupercalia. Some researchers have
theorized that Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with the celebration of the
Purification of Mary in February 14 and claim a connection to the 14th
century's connotations of romantic love, but there is no historical indication
that he ever intended such a thing. Also, the dates don't fit because at the
time of Gelasius I the feast was only celebrated in Jerusalem, and it was on
February 14 only because Jerusalem placed the Nativity on January 6.[notes 3]
Although it was called "Purification of Mary", it dealt mainly with
the presentation of Jesus at the temple. The Jerusalem's Purification of Mary
on February 14 became the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple on February 2 as
it was introduced to Rome and other places in the sixth century, after Gelasius
I's time.
Alban Butler in his Lifes of the Principal Saints
(1756–1759) claimed without proof that men and women in Lupercalia drew names
from a jar to make couples, and that modern Valentine's letters originated from
this custom. In reality, this practice originated in the Middle Ages, with no
link to Lupercalia, with men drawing the names of girls at random to couple
with them. This custom was combated by priests, for example by Frances de Sales
around 1600, apparently by replacing it with a religious custom of girls
drawing the names of apostles from the altar. However, this religious custom is
recorded as soon as the 13th century in the life of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary,
so it could have a different origin.
Jack B. Oruch writes that the first recorded association of
Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey
Chaucer. Chaucer wrote:
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his mak Ledyvinee.
["For this was on St. Valentine's Day, when every bird
cometh there to choose his mate."]
This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the
engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty providing
for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381.[46]
Readers have uncritically assumed that Chaucer was referring
to February 14 as Valentine's Day; however, mid-February is an unlikely time
for birds to be mating in England. Henry Ansgar Kelly has observed that Chaucer
might have had in mind the feast day of St. Valentine of Genoa, an early bishop
of Genoa who died around AD 307; it was probably celebrated on 3 May. Jack B.
Oruch notes that the date on which spring begins has changed since Chaucer's
time because of the precession of the equinoxes and the introduction of the
more accurate Gregorian calendar only in 1582. On the Julian calendar in use in
Chaucer's time, 14 February would have fallen on the date now called 23
February, a time when some birds have started mating and nesting in England.
Chaucer's Parliament of Foules refers to a supposedly established
tradition, but there is no record of such a tradition before Chaucer. The
speculative derivation of sentimental customs from the distant past began with
18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of
Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. Most
notably, "the idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the
Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms,
up to the present".
Three other authors who made poems about birds mating on St.
Valentine's Day around the same years: Otton de Grandson from Savoy, John Gower
from England, and a knight called Pardo from Valencia. Chaucer most probably
predated all of them but, due to the difficulty of dating medieval works, it is
not possible to ascertain which of the four first had the idea and influenced
the others.
The earliest description of February 14 as an annual
celebration of love appears in the Charter of the Court of Love. The charter,
allegedly issued by Charles VI of France at Mantes-la-Jolie in 1400, describes
lavish festivities to be attended by several members of the royal court,
including a feast, amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing.
Amid these festivities, the attending ladies would hear and rule on disputes
from lovers No other record of the court exists, and none of those named in the
charter were present at Mantes except Charles's queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, who
may well have imagined it all while waiting out a plague.
The earliest surviving valentine is a 15th-century rondeau
written by Charles, Duke of Orléans to his wife, which commences.
Je suis desja d'amour tanné
Ma tres doulce Valentinée...
— Charles d'Orléans, Rondeau VI, lines 1–2
At the time, the duke was being held in the Tower of London
following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415.
The earliest surviving valentines in English appear to be
those in the Paston Letters, written in 1477 by Margery Brewes to her future
husband John Paston "my right well-beloved Valentine".
Valentine's Day is mentioned ruefully by Ophelia in Hamlet
(1600–1601):
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5
John Donne used the legend of the marriage of the birds as the
starting point for his epithalamion celebrating the marriage of Elizabeth,
daughter of James I of England, and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, on
Valentine's Day:
Hayle Bishop Valentine whose day this is
All the Ayre is thy Diocese
And all the chirping Queristers
And other birds ar thy parishioners
Thou marryest every yeare
The Lyrick Lark, and the graue whispering Doue,
The Sparrow that neglects his life for loue,
The houshold bird with the redd stomacher
Thou makst the Blackbird speede as soone,
As doth the Goldfinch, or the Halcyon
The Husband Cock lookes out and soone is spedd
And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed.
This day more cheerfully than ever shine
This day which might inflame thy selfe old Valentine.
— John Donne, Epithalamion Vpon Frederick Count Palatine and
the Lady Elizabeth marryed on St. Valentines day
The verse Roses are red echoes conventions traceable as far
back as Edmund Spenser's epic The Faerie Queene (1590):
She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,
And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.
The modern cliché Valentine's Day poem can be found in the
collection of English nursery rhymes Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784):
The rose is red, the violet's blue,
The honey's sweet, and so are you.
Thou art my love and I am thine;
I drew thee to my Valentine:
The lot was cast and then I drew,
And Fortune said it shou'd be you.
Ledyvine
Valentine's Day postcard, circa 1910
In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine
Writer, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young
lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a limited
number of cards with verses and sketches, called "mechanical
valentines," and a reduction in postal rates in the next century ushered
in the less personal but easier practice of mailing Valentines. That, in turn,
made it possible for the first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is
taken as the reason for the sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise
prudishly Victorian.[59]
Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early
19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy Valentines were made
with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century.
In 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were sent by post in Britain, despite postage
being expensive. The Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection at Manchester
Metropolitan University gathers 450 Valentine's Day cards dating from the early
nineteenth century, printed by the major publishers of the day The collection
is cataloged in Laura Seddon's book Victorian Valentines (1996).
In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of
embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland
(1828–1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and
stationery store, but Howland took her inspiration from an English Valentine
she had received from a business associate of her father.Intrigued with the
idea of making similar Valentines, Howland began her business by importing
paper lace and floral decorations from England. A writer in Graham's American
Monthly observed in 1849, "Saint Valentine's Day ... is becoming, nay it has
become, a national holyday." The English practice of sending Valentine's
cards was established enough to feature as a plot device in Elizabeth Gaskell's
Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1851): "I burst in with my explanations: 'The
valentine I know nothing about.' 'It is in your handwriting', said he
coldly." Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an
annual "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary".
Valentines candy
Valentine's Day red roses
Box of Valentine chocolates
Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have given way to
mass-produced greeting cards.In the UK, just under half of the population spend
money on their Valentines and around £1.3 billion is spent yearly on cards,
flowers, chocolates and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being
sent.The mid-19th century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further
commercialized holidays in the United States to follow.
In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of
exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts. Such gifts typically
include roses, and chocolates packed in a red satin, heart-shaped box. In the
1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for
giving jewelry.[citation needed]
The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that
approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. Half of
those valentines are given to family members other than husband or wife,
usually to children. When the valentine-exchange cards made in school
activities are included the figure goes up to 1 billion, and teachers become
the people receiving the most valentines. The average valentine’s spending has
increased every year in the U.S, from $108 a person in 2010 to $131 in 2013.
The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the
millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year,
digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as
e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards. An estimated 15 million e-valentines
were sent in 2010. Valentine's Day is considered by some to be a Hallmark
holiday due to its commercialization.
In the modern era, liturgically, the Anglican Church has a
service for St. Valentine's Day (the Feast of St. Valentine), which includes
the optional rite of the renewal of marriage vows. In 2016, Catholic Bishops of
England and Wales established a novena prayer "to support single people
seeking a spouse ahead of St Valentine’s Day."
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