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Show .J-- ,"--'--. n f" ', '" ,V 'V '", V'.V I - .? jl ....'..rStiXV : .u&- I j By ELMO SCOTT WATSON rsvnUU: Christum. St. Valen- L tine's day couibiuos lu Us traJiliona a qtii'or mUtiire . of Oirisiian uuil asau fU-moius. It dorivi-s Us fjl name from an early Ciirls-w2T Ciirls-w2T tlau martr two of tlioiu. ll S!,-v 8l,llle liiuirians but I f its oliservauoe comos straight froiu the aticlont ff-y I Kotnau$. wlio not only af i, " nvre uot Cliri--(ians but who sliowed what they thought of Cliristianity by their playful habit of ftvuin latve nuaibers of that re-liior.s re-liior.s seet to the lions. The first St. Valentine was one of these early Christian martyrs. al!hoi;'a bis nuirtyrijoui was not via the !i"n route, buring the reisn of the K:n-er.ir K:n-er.ir Ciaulius a certain I'.ishop Val-eii'.inus Val-eii'.inus w..s br.'iuht before t!;e em-perur em-perur anj the hili priest, (.'alphurnius, charged with a ;vries of hih eriair-s iiainst the Iloinan -1 -5- When faced by his accusers, the bi-l."P starte 1 to make a pica for the Christian cause, but he was siictio J and hurried away to As;urius. noted as the severest of Iton.an judges and one who had a particular par-ticular hatred of Christians, to be tried and sentenced. Jleanw liile the emperor sent a secret niesauv to Aturius commanding him to use every means possible to win Valciitinus back to the native K"ds 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 Itoiuan exclaimed, ex-claimed, "If your God is indeed the li'ht of the world, let Him prove His divine power by restoring sight to my blind daughter!" "Bring her to me," answered Val-entinus, Val-entinus, and when the blind girl was brought before him lie laid his bands upi.n 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 tiieir pagan gods and were baptized into the Christian faith by Valentinus. Valentinus' Martyrdom When the emperor tioard of this, he was furious, not only at the bishop but also at his greatest noble w ho had thus deserted him. lie 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 executed exe-cuted on the Flammian Way leading from Home to Arriminium on the Adriatic sea. The year In which this took place is In dispute. At least three dates 270 A. D., 278 A. D. and 306 A. D. are variously given, but It Is certain that the execution took place on a day corresponds to our February 14. At any rate, the martyrdom martyr-dom of Valentinus, the bishop, made him St. Valentine and his remains are enshrined In the church of St. I'raxedes In Home. A gate In Rome was also named after him, Porta Val-entinl, Val-entinl, but It was later changed to Porta del Popolo. Although Bishop Valentinus was the original St. Valentine there was another an-other bis-hop wdio bore that name. He was from Literamma, he was also a bishop and a martyr and performed many miracle before he was exe- cutcd. But beyond that, little sceim to be kuowu of carver and cer tainly nothing In the llvi-s of either Saint Valentine wot'.id seem to have given ri-e to the frivolous cel. -brat !mn of the day d.'dicatc to these two sain: Significance Lost For the religious signiheance of St. Valentines day has been entirely loM and the celebration of the annUerslfy as we know It comes from the ancient Ilomaii feast of I.upercalia. itie 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 lu a box or some other receptacle from which thty were drawn by young men who thereupon became their t-weethearts 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, fluririf? a great part of the month of February, to celebrate the Lupercalla, which were feasts In honor of 1'an and Juno, whence the latter deity waa named Februata, Februalls and Feb-rulla. Feb-rulla. On this occasion amidst a variety va-riety cf 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 vestlKes 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 Lupcrcalla hid 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 same time. It would seem, however, that it was utterly utter-ly Impossible to extirpate altogether any ceremony to which the common people had been much accustomed a fact which It were easy to prove In tracing 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 SL 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 phenonu n.'i, the paan Bomati "lot . I.-ry of love" and the anniversary of the b-:i:h of u Christian martyr. Jn-t when the celebration of SL Valentine's day turned in the direction of sendin; a'et. tines i unknown. Tho common tradition N that the flrr-t poetical valentines were those penned by Charles, Imke of Orleans, grandson of Charle" V of France and father of Louis XII. lie was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincotirt In 111.1 and was kept a prisoner in the Tower of London for 2.1 years before lie was finally ransomed for rji mi.im-0 crowns. Who hi-i Ind.vlove was to whom ft) love poems were written while there Is not recorded but nil of them are now preserved In a large volume In the British museum. Business and Sentiment A curious mixing of business and s-vntiment In the observance of SL Valentine's day Is recorded In the fact that during the 27th year of the relgn of Henry VIII of Fngland, that monarch mon-arch granted a charter to the city of Lynn setting npart 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 anil other supplies for the season. sea-son. In that part of F.ngland February Feb-ruary 14 became known as Valentine Market day and beribbnned 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 relgn It was not only customary for lovers to send ardent mess-ages 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 a Jewel valued at $5,000. At least we have the word of that most celebrated of all diarists, Samuel Pftpys, 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 800; and my Lord Mandeville, her valentine this year, a ring of about 300." |