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Show G; LOVE fTgK -v I R v rt -X W.i'w I - ill -'If' ri i lf f M'i' ' ' 'Mmi- 'k'-3 -J CJ OF tt mzXTfl'Z?&3 Of OUR. . 7 T By ELMO SCOTT WATSON raaMH l K i: Christina!, St. Yulen-I Yulen-I tine's day combines In Its I traditions n queer mixture j of Christian and pagan Ba"",w elements. It derives Its Ids5 name from an early Chris-y!ffs Chris-y!ffs tlnn martyr two of them, say some historians but '9 I !r 'ts observance comes V3 straight from the ancient I uv) u Unmans, who not only xwtwi were not Chrlrtians 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 l is martyrdom was not via the lion j route. During the reign of the Km- peror Claudius a certain Bishop Val-H.'tinus Val-H.'tinus w;:8 brought before the em-peror em-peror and the high priest, Culpliurnius, -barged with a series of high crimes iiainst the Roman gods. When faced by his accusers, the bishop started to make a pleu for the Christian cause, but he was silenced and hurried away to Asturius, noted as the severest of Koinan Judges and one who had a par-Menhir par-Menhir hatred of Christians, to bo tried and sentenced. Meanwhile the emperor sent a secret message to Asturius commanding nim to use every means possible to win Valentinus back to the native gijds and to try to save Ids life. When the bishop was questioned by Asturius and found to be firm In his? adherence to the new religion, the Romun exclaimed, ex-claimed, "If your (iod is Indeed the light of the world, let Him prove, His divine power by restoring sight to my blind daughter!" "firing 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 po Impressed Im-pressed by this miracle that he and all of bis household forswore their 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 ut his greatest noble who had thus deserted him. lie immediately ordered Asturius and all of his family imprisoned and the Christian bishop II ist to he beaten in public and tlum 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 curried out. He suiTered flagellation and was executed exe-cuted on the l'lamiuian Way leading from Rome to Amininiuin on the Adriatic sea. The year In which this took place Is in dispute. At least three dates 170 A. D.. 278 A. I), and :-fKt A. D. are variously given, but it is certain that the execution took place, on a day correspondii.g to our February 14. At any rate, the martyrdom martyr-dom of Valentinus, the bisliop, made him St. Valentine and Ids remains are enshrined in t lie church of St. I'nixedes in Rome. A gate In Rome was also named after him, Porta Val-intiiii, Val-intiiii, but It was later changed to Porta del Popolo. Although Pishop Valentinus was the -original St. Valentine there was an other bishop who bore that name. He was from I.iteramnia. he was also a bishop and a martyr and performed many miracle before be was exe cuted. Rut beyond thut, little seem-s to be known of his career and certainly cer-tainly nothing In the lives of either Saint Valentine wou.'d seem to have given rise to the frivolous'' celebration.-i of the day dedicated to these two saints. Significance Lost For the religious significance of St. Valeutine's day has been entirely lost and the celebration of the anniversary us we know it comes from the ancient Roman feast of Luperculin, 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 lu u 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 us follows: Jt was the practice In ancient Rome, iIui'Ihk a great part of the month of February, to celebrate the Luperealla, which were feasts In honor of Pan and Juno, whence the latter deity was named Kebruata, 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 wtre drawn by the men as chance directed. The pastors of the early Christian church, who, by every possible means, endeavored to eradicate the vestlRes of panan 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 ihe festival of l.upi rcalia h?irt 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 .iame 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 choosint! mates would gradually grad-ually become reciprocal In the sexes aari that all persons so chosen would be railed 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 lo make this strange composite complete. Among the ancients an-cients it was pop u I ii fly believed that ihe muting 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 "lot-lery "lot-lery of love" and the anniversary of Ihe death of a Christian martyr. Just when Ihe 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 f.ouls XII. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and wus kept a prisoner In the Tower of London for 25 years before he was finally ransomed for UOO.OOO crowns. Who his lady-love was to whom 00 love poems were written while there is not recorded but all of them nre now preserved In a large volume In the Rrltlsh 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 VIII of Kngland, 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 season. sea-son. In that port of ICngland February Feb-ruary 14 became known as Valentine Market day and beribboned valentines were sold from stalls and on the street. In so far as Henry VIII had something of a reputation 8S 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. Rut it remained for another "great lover," Charles II, to bring the oh servance of St. Valentine's day to its zenith. During his reign 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 I his period was that of the duke of York to the famous Miss Stuart, who later became the duchess of Richmond. It was i jewel valued at $5,000. At lens-t we have the word of tiiat most celebrated of all diarists. Samuel IVys, for it, for be, having noticed the Jewels of Miss Stuart, recorded that "The dul;e of York, being once her valentine, did give her a jewel of about t'SOO; and my Lord Mundevilte, her valentine this year, a ring of about .'!00." |