VALENTINI

A few years ago I realized that I didn’t know anything about Saint Valentine. Officially, he is a canonized saint in the Roman Catholic Church but his backstory gets murky very quickly. I went to wikipedia first, then crosschecked another source and found a story about a 3rd century priest named Valentini who defied Roman law by performing weddings for soldiers who were christians, who didn’t want to live in sin. The rule was, no married soldiers. Rome didn’t want wives or children, not anything competing with troops loyalty to the emperor. Valentini had neither romantic nor sentimental purpose, no hearts & flowers, only passion for his religion. Beheading was his punishment. Valentini was considered a martyr for his sacrifice, leading to sainthood. The date of his death coincided with a pagan holiday. Over time his legacy became entangled with pagan fertility traditions. Now we celebrate romantic love on February 14, in the name of a less than romantic, religious zealot. 

I went back looking for that story and couldn’t find it. What I found had been documented by an order of Belgian monks who had been researching the history of all the saints, using only original texts. It took them hundreds of years, finishing in the mid 1940’s. They noted that sainthood always requires a miracle. They focused on two separate but similar stories, both involved 3rd century priests but from different regions, both named Valentini. At the time, persecuting Christians was common practice across the Roman Empire. If they didn’t keep a low profile, any Christian might be dispatched indiscriminately. Both priests performed miracle healings on relatives of local officials, leading to conversions of the officials. In both cases the officials were punished summarily but the priests were beheaded. The Belgian monks concluded that the two stories were different versions of the same story, thus only one Saint Valentine. There was no mention of popular, romantic holidays.

Getting back to current research that does appreciate popular, secular holidays, the modern concept of romantic love didn’t find its way into western literature until the 14th century. Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales) noted letters between courtly gentlemen and ladies where affection and emotion were clearly expressed. Sometime between Chaucer and Shakespeare it was noted that birds began their mating behaviors at about the same time as the lusty, pagan holiday, Valentine’s Day. It became popular for poets and lovers to express their romantic feelings through printed poems and notes (cards) that could be purchased and exchanged. After a long, cold winter, “Warm & Dry” should be the first order. Who would have thunk it; birds doing their little flutter-flutter, hoochie coochie, come and get me dance might have triggered the same response in people. I think the amorous urge is all about timing, it doesn’t matter if you’re bird or human; I discovered “hoochie coochie, come and get me” when in my teens but then, “Birds & Bees” had to originate somewhere.

I like the Belgian monk story and the way it converges with Chaucer. I remember in the 2nd grade, the night before, you addressed little, penny valentines for everyone in your class. At school, several helpers passed out valentines that had been dropped in a box that morning. There were three kinds of valentines. The small, one sided kind; getting one of those meant that your name was on the class list. If you got a folding card that opened up, with writing on both sides it meant that someone thought you were alright. If you got a valentine in an envelope it meant someone thought you were special, at least that’s what we thought. Our valentine from Mrs. Loncosky came in an envelope, we all got at least one valentine with an envelope. It’s that time again, I have a few days to buy a card that is both clever and affectionate. It will cost more than all the cards in that box back in 2nd grade but that's the price of progress. The lesson I draw from this story is that martyr’s names can be remembered for the wrong reasons and they will still be dead.