Wednesday marks Valentine’s Day, a date typically celebrated with romantic dinners, gifts of flowers, and expressions of love for significant others. This year, we might consider how to make the holiday more genuine in its original purpose. Saint Valentine of Rome was a third-century martyr commemorated on February 14, the date of his burial, a tradition honored since A.D. 496.
Given this history, why do we associate his feast day with romantic love?
The answer is surprisingly practical and has little to do with the saint’s life; there is no historical record of unrequited love or specific blessings he bestowed upon young couples. As the New Catholic Encyclopedia notes, the medieval custom of sending love notes on Saint Valentine’s Day likely stems from the folk belief that mid-February marked the beginning of the avian mating season. We have continued to use his commemoration in a similar fashion ever since.
Not exactly fodder for a Hallmark Channel movie.
Yet we should honor the day. Valentine became a saint due to his ministry to persecuted Christians in Rome. He’s honored not simply by Catholics, but also Anglicans, Lutherans and even the Eastern Orthodox Church (though for the latter, his day lands on July 6). He should be honored by all Christ followers.
Though clearly in the camp of hagiography, I still love the story associated with Valentine who, while under house arrest, was asked about the validity of Jesus. A judge decided to test Valentine and his faith by bringing the saint to the judge’s adopted blind daughter. If Valentine could restore the girl’s sight, the judge would release him. Valentine laid his hands on the girl’s eyes, and instantly her sight was restored.
The judge, stunned and amazed, asked what he should do now. Valentine told him to destroy all of his idols, fast for three days and then be baptized. Not only did the judge follow this prescription, but he also freed all the imprisoned Christians under his jurisdiction.
Another slice of hagiography – again one that I can’t help but be attracted to – is how he died. Valentine was arrested for the (still) daring act of evangelism and was sent for trial to Claudius Gothicus, the emperor of Rome. When Valentine attempted to evangelize even the emperor, he was told to either renounce his faith or be beaten with clubs and then beheaded.
Valentine refused to stop making Christ known.
He was then executed on February 14.
Our Valentine’s Day.
So send your expressions of love. But take a moment or two to go deeper than Post-it notes on the mirror, Godiva chocolates and candlelit dinners, and remember the love that coursed through the veins of Valentine himself that reverberates to this day.
Not the love of a man toward a woman, or even less the mating of two birds, but rather the love of a man for his God.
Read more from James Emery White »
This article originally appeared on ChurchAndCulture.org.