St. Valentine healing an epileptic.
Valentine, who we celebrate today, was a priest and later a bishop of Terni, a city in Italy, in the third century. He was martyred in Rome under the Emperor Claudius in about the year 269. For those of you who are curious, the connection that we understand today between Valentine and those who fall in love seems to derive from two historical legends, and specifically around the date of Feb. 14. First, this is the traditional day in medieval belief when birds mated. Second, and more likely, Valentine’s feast day is linked with the pagan Lupercalia festival in Rome, which occurred on the Ides of February. Christians also believe that, historically, Feb. 14 was the day Valentine was buried following martyrdom for his faith. Therefore, this day marks an acknowledgement of an all-loving God who blesses those who love one another, as Jesus commanded his own disciples to do.
Celine Dion
On this point, when we consider Valentine’s life in more depth, we do not simply discover a figure who was all about “luurve,” as the singer Celine Dion frequently and loudly reminds us. Rather, Valentine was a humble clergyman who stood up for his faith and was killed for it by those who persecuted Christians in the days of the Roman Empire prior to Constantine’s conversion. Indeed, when Valentine’s feast day was set on this day in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, he included in his writings on the matter that Valentine was to be considered among all those “whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.” In other words, despite many myths and legends, we do not know anything, really, about this person’s life at all. All we know was that he was a man of faith, a priest and bishop, and aside from some hagiographical accounts of miraculous healings, there is not much to confirm about him, and especially not anything about romance.
And this is the point. Love, in Christian terms, is not solely concerned with romance and relationships, but with love of neighbor. This is why, for example, that while reading modern versions of 1 Corinthians 13, we see the words, “faith, hope, and love abide,” yet the more traditional versions say, “faith, hope, and charity.” Charity is Christian love: love of neighbor, love of self, and love of God. A form of love which is, as the poet Geoffrey Hill puts it, “not about enjoyment but joy,” a deeper form of love where you are able to trust, embrace, and care about someone regardless of whether they are pretty or not, or whether they are easy to look at and be with or not. A form of love which goes beyond superficiality, image, or icon, and is rather about, as our Baptismal Covenant puts it, “respecting the dignity of every human being.”
Valentine: a Christian who humbly served God, followed Jesus, loved their neighbor regardless of who they were, and risked persecution for that one truth, especially when so many in government and the wider world taught otherwise. That is a story worth celebrating and living into.
The Rev. Edward Thornley
Rector of The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist