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By Dr. Anton Anderssen
Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846) begifted a portion of the remains of Saint Valentine to the people of Ireland.
On November 10, 1836, the Reliquary containing the Saint’s remains arrived in Dublin and were brought in solemn procession to Whitefriar Street Church (610 meters away from Saint Patrick Cathedral) where they were received by Archbishop Daniel Murray of Dublin.
Officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, St. Valentine is an historical figure who died around A.D. 270. However, his true identity was questioned as early as A.D. 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who referred to the martyr and his acts as “being known only to God.” Lupercalia was a fertility festival held February 13-15 that was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman God of Agriculture. Pope Gelasius I forbade the Lupercalia festival at the end of the fifth century as an abomination, and established St. Valentine’s Day in AD 496 as a Christian feast. Pakistan, parts of Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Iran, parts of Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia forbid St. Valentine's Day as an abomination.
The church stopped veneration of Valentine in 1969, however he is still listed as an official saint. The official roster of saints shows about a dozen men (and one woman) who were named Valentine or some variation thereof. We even had a Pope Valentine, an arcane leader who had a very short papacy, dying just five weeks after his election in October 827.
The St. Valentine celebrated on February 14 has wide-ranging spiritual responsibilities. Supplicants beseech him to watch over the lives of lovers, of course, but also for interventions regarding beekeeping and epilepsy, as well as the plague, fainting and traveling. During the Victorian era, one would send a Valentine card anonymously to someone upon which one had a romantic crush, however, the message and its sender was always highly secretive. Valentine's Day, the massive capitalist phenomenon as we know it, was invented in 1913 by Hallmark Cards.
The flower-adorned skull of Saint Valentine is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. You’ll find other bits of St. Valentine’s relics on display in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland, England and France.
No record documents romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem Geoffrey Chaucer wrote around 1375. In his work “Parliament of Foules,” he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day–an association that didn’t exist until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. Geoffrey Chaucer also invented the most offensive word known in the English language, the four-letter “c word,” directed toward females with whom one is not so much in love. Prior to Geoffrey Chaucer’s rise to literary stardom, the “c word” was quite a compliment to call your wife or girlfriend – it meant you thought she was highly desirable, stimulating, and very pleasurable to be around – a true Valentine.
