Valentine's Day for the Birds

Spirituality Column #66
February 12, 2008
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Valentine’s Day for the Birds
By Bob Walters

It’s surprising what turns up when you Google “St. Valentine” and “Patron Saint of Love.”

I didn’t expect the heart of the matter to be Geoffrey Chaucer. Or to learn of several St. Valentines, none formally recognized by Catholic sources as “love” saints. Or to discover Ste. Dwynwen.

Let me try to put what I found in order. Three martyrs named Valentine from the 3rd and 4th centuries were beatified (sainted) long ago by the Catholic Church. One was evidently beheaded in 270 A.D. by Roman Emperor Claudius II and there is a legend, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, about him marrying young lovers against the Emperor’s wishes.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, which on matters Catholic I think trumps Britannica in its authority, makes no reference to this. It says the various Sts. Valentine defended Christians and were executed (FYI, “martyr” means you were killed for your faith. If you are merely maimed or beaten, you are a “confessor”).

Feb. 14, for legendary but unconfirmed reasons, was very early-on selected as the Feast of St. Valentine on the Catholic ecclesiastical calendar. An old pagan fertility holiday was Feb. 15, and some suggest a Valentine correlation (think All Saints Day and Halloween). All unconfirmed.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says this: “The popular customs associated with St. Valentine’s Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e., halfway through the second month of the year, the birds begin to pair.

“Thus in Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules we read: ‘For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day, Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.’”

Birds! That story, and variations of it, appear throughout the Google search: birds pair-up in mid-February, so Valentine’s Day became a human mating celebration.

Interesting that the Catholic Encyclopedia mentions Chaucer, a Brit, but Encyclopedia Britannica does not. Even the often-wacky but occasionally accurate populist Wikipedia insists no Valentine “love” link existed before Chaucer.

According to the Catholic Singles page on CatholicPeople.com, the Patron saint of lovers was a beautiful Welsh maiden later known as Saint Dwynwen who in order to become a nun, sacrificed her love for a young man deeply smitten with her.

Valentine’s Day cards, today second in number only to Christmas cards, came along around 1840 birthing the greeting card industry. Yet nothing but imputed modern legend suggests any of the several ancient Sts. Valentine had anything to do with love.

For pure love, I don’t think any Saint beats the Lord Jesus Christ. As for Eros and Cupid, Song of Songs in the Old Testament tops anything they ever thought of.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wishes all you lovers blue skies and candlelit dinners.