There is much that we don't know about St. Valentine but it doesn't make much of a difference. Did he actually live? Probably. He was removed from the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholics in l969 by Pope Paul VI because all of the history could not be documented.
But there was a priest, Valentine, beheaded by the Emperor Claudius, who made the mistake of secretly marrying soldiers who were banned from marrying by the Emperor. (Unmarried soldiers fought better in his opinion.) And that adds a romantic touch to us --not too romantic for the blessed Saint if he did exist.
But it doesn't matter in the end about his history to us. We like to think that love is worth celebrating whenever it comes to anyone and we will hang St. Valentines name on it. Maybe he would be proud!
No comments:
Post a Comment