I didn't wake up this morning intending to post any updates, but this meme showed up in my Facebook news feed, and it was too good to pass by.To give credit where credit is due, this meme came from catholicmemes.com.
Who says Catholics don't have a sense of humor? He he.
I don't have a problem with the whole "celebration of love" holiday, within reasonable limits (there's that pesky choleric side of me); but this meme did make me wonder what the real story of St. Valentine is. So I went and researched it, and this is what I found.
This information came from Catholic Online. I was originally going to use an entry in The Origional Catholic Encyclopedia, but it was a little too dry for my taste. If you want to check it out, feel free to follow this link
"Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270. Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate now called Porta del Popolo, formerly, Porta Valetini. The greatest part of his relics are now in the church of St. Praxedes. His name is celebrated as that of an illustrious martyr in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, the Roman Missal of Thomasius, in the calendar of F. Fronto and that of Allatius, in Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker and all other martyrologies on this day. To abolish the heathens lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess Februata Juno, on the fifteenth of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on this day."
Anyway, I'm not going to monologue about history this morning (too much homework to do). I simply wanted to share this bit of information and wish you all a happy Valentine's Day, whether it be with your sweetie, family, or friends. Love covers a much wider range of topics than just romantic relationships, and we can all benefit from St. Valentine's intercession.
St. Valentine — pray for us.
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