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Show .w - - V" J) J P?o6os iy MaJo Zztycete ff By ELMO SCOTT WATSON " i I ?V! ff ""fl IKE Christmas, St. Valen- r ( rL . tW I tine's day combines in its V - -fcSk Pf ' I traditions a queer mixture J" H X? 'fr sf ,fl" j of Christian and pagan yf' JV i f A l-rm elements. It derives its Jf V OO Pr J At M name from an early Chris- j V $f3 VX H ' ' i fS tian martyr two of them, v,fc;fj' IJ'HfW " If v ll say some historians but fe. (fW-. 'J&J S - 8Cl its observance comes rvn ?Cfife VA I ' I ft5 I straight from the ancient iPv W '-'S5sVV' 1 ? " " ' 1 3 I Romans. " who not only Jl)lV ViAP - ImsJ were not Christians but Wf A 1 - who showed wiiat they thought of J M e5SK - Vwa Christianity by their playful habit of rHjHaW ' "i r " feeding large numbers of that re- I W . V$ f T.W ligious sect to the lions. 0 KlW V j 1 ' d Ati ' J , f" The first St. Valentine was one of J W U ' these early Christian martyrs, although M I lfe'Swwi . " AJ his martyrdom was not via the lion J route. During the reign of the Em- 23in5,-jCcJ3 "" peror Claudius a certain Bishop Val- OF ' TSTiTlTaS OP OUR S? entinus was brought before the em- G(RAZWXV2TilSXS &$RZOZ V By ELMO SCOTT WATSON I"""" ill IKE Christmas-, St. Valen- I w I tine's day combines in its I traditions a queer mixture B of Christian and pagan l'""!) elements. It derives its l5w3! nanle from an early Chris-B Chris-B yp?IP tian ala''tvr tw0 of them, say some historians but 8 9 its observance comes I I straight from the ancient I tta t Romans, " who not only fcnEHS were not Christians but who showed what they thought of Christianity by their playful habit of feeding large numbers of that religious re-ligious sect to the lions. The first St. Valentine was one of these early Christian martyrs, although his martyrdom was not via the lion route. During the reign of the Emperor Em-peror Claudius a certain Bishop Val-entinus Val-entinus was brought before the emperor em-peror and the high priest, Calphurnius, charged with a series of high crimes against the Roman gods. When faced by his accusers, the bishop started to make a plea for the Christian cause, but he was silenced and hurried away to Asturius, noted as the severest of Roman judges and one who had a particular par-ticular hatred of Christians, to be tried and sentenced. Meanwhile the emperor sent a secret message to Asturius commanding him to use every means possible to win Valentinus back to the native gods and to try to save his life. When the bishop was questioned by Asturius and found to be firm in his adherence to the new religion, the Roman exclaimed, ex-claimed, "If your God is indeed the light of the world, let Him prove His divine power by restoring sight to my blind daughter!" , "Bring her to me," answered Valentinus, Val-entinus, and when the blind girl was brought before him he laid his hands upon her head and prayed aloud for the restoration of her sight. Then, so runs the legend, her sight was indeed restored, and Asturius was so impressed im-pressed by this miracle that he and all of his household forswore theii pagan gods and were baptized into the Christian faith by Valentinus. Valentinus' Martyrdom When the emperor heard of this, he was furious, not only at the bishop but also at his greatest nohle who had thus deserted him. He immediately . ordered Asturius and all of his family imprisoned and the Christian bishop first to be beaten in public and then beheaded. What happened to Asturius As-turius or his family, history does not record, but in the case of the bishop the emperor's orders were carried out. He suffered flagellation and was exe j cuted on the Klauiinian Way leading i from Rome to Arriminiuin on the Adriatic sea. The year in which this I took place is in dispute. At least j three dates 270 A. D., 27S A D. and i 800 A. D. are variously given, but it is certain that the execution took place on a day corresponding to our February 14. At any rate, the martyr-' martyr-' dom of Valentinus, the bishop, made I him St. Valentine and bis remains are I enshrined in the church of St. ' Praxedes in Rome. A gate in Rome was also named after him. Porta Val-l Val-l entini, but it was later' changed to I Porta del Popolo. J Although Bishop Valentinus was the original SI. Valentine there was an other bishop who bore that name. He was from L'teramma. he was also a bishop ii in I a martyr and performed 'liany miracles before he was exe cuted. But beyond that, little seems to be known of his career and certainly cer-tainly nothing in the lives of either Saint Valentine would seem to have given flse to the frivolous celebrations of the day dedicated to these two saints. Significance Lost For the religious significance of St. Valentine's day has been entirely lost and the celebration of the anniversary as we know it comes from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia, one of the special features of which was what was called the "lottery of love." In the "lottery of love" the names of young women were placed in a box. or some other receptacle from which they were drawn by young men who thereupon became their sweethearts for the following year. How this pagan custom came to be associated with the day dedicated to a Christian saint is explained by an early writer as follows: It was the practice in ancient Rome, 'luring a great part of the month of February, to celebrate the Lupercalia, which were feasts in honor of Pan and Juno, whence the latter deity was named Februata, Februalis and Feb-rulla. Feb-rulla. On this occasion amidst a variety va-riety of ceremonies, the names of the young women were put in a box from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed. The pastors of the early Christian church, who, by every possible means, endeavored to eradicate the vestiges of pagan superstitions, and chiefly by some commutations of their forms, substituted, in the present Instance, In-stance, the names of particular saints instead of. those of the women; and as the festival of Lupercalia hrvr! commenced com-menced about the middle of February they appear to have chosen St. Valentine's Val-entine's day for celebrating the new feast, because It occurred nearly at the jame time. It would seem, however, that it was utterly utter-ly impossible to extirpate altogether yny ceremony to which the common people had been much accustomed a fact which it were easy to prove in 'racing the origin of various other popular pop-ular superstitions. And. accordingly, the outline of the ancient ceremonies was preserved, but modified by some adaptation to the Christian system. It is reasonable to suppose that the above practice of choosing mates would gradually grad-ually become reciprocal In the sexes and that all persons so chosen would be called Valentines, from the day on which the ceremony took place. There is one other touch which needs to be added to the St. Valentine's Valen-tine's tradition to make this strange composite complete. Among the ancients an-cients it was popularly believed that the mating season of birds began in the middle of February and from that grew the legend of February 14 as the exact date. So St. Valentine's day is a combination of a natural phenomena, the pagan Roman "lottery "lot-tery of love" and the anniversary of the death of a Christian martyr. Just when the celebration of St. Valentine's day turned in the direction of sending valentines is unknown. The common tradition is that the first poetical valentines were those penned by Charles, Duke of Orleans, grandson of Charles V of France and father of Louis XII. He was taken prisoner at ,the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and was kept a prisoner in the Tower of London for 25 years before he was finally ransomed for 300,000 crowns. Who his lady-love was to whom GO love poems were written while there is not recorded but all of them are now preserved in a large volume in the British . museum. Business and Sentiment , A curious mixing of business and sentiment in the observance of St. Valentine's day is recorded in the fact that during the 27th year of the reign of Henry VTII of England, that monarch mon-arch granted a charter to the city of Lynn setting apart St. Valentine's day as the date of the opening of the annual an-nual market when the housewives of Lynn bought their dry goods, provisions pro-visions and other supplies for the sea-sun. sea-sun. In that part of England February Feb-ruary 14 became known as Valentine Market day and beribhoned valentines were sold from stalls and on the street. In so far as Henry VIII had something of a reputation as being a "great lover." it is singularly appropriate appro-priate that he should have been the one who should forward the wider observance of this day devoted to love making. But it remained for another "great lover," Charles II, to bring the observance ob-servance of St. Valentine's day to its zenith. During his reign it was not only customary for lovers to send ardent messages to their maidens fair but also expensive gifts as well. It is said that the most expensive gift presented during this period was that of the duke of York to the famous Miss Stuart, who later became the duchess of Richmond. It was t jewel valued at $5,000. At least We have the word of that most celebrated of all diarists, Samuel Pepys, for it, for he, having noticed the jewels of Miss Stuart, recorded that "The duke of York, being once her valentine, did give her a jewel of about S00; and my Lord Mandeville, her valentine this year, a ring of about 300." Joe Rabbit, outfielder on the Omaha club of the Western league, during the 1!'27 season, has been sold to the Toronto International league club. The Chicago White Sox announce the purchase ol Pitcher Roy Wilson a young southpaw pitcher, from the San Antonio club of the Texas league Bud Shaney, Asbevill (S. C.) pitcher, losl nine games during the 1927 season by a margin of one run it has been discovered In the ollicia' league records just released. |