My Valentine's Day Wish

Anyone who had a heart would grant it!

My new Valentine’s Day roses! Photo by the Author.

This is shaping up to be a great Valentine’s Day. Last night Howard brought me roses from Wegmans. Why thank you, honey! And tonight when he plays the piano at the Hyatt, I am going to pick out a dandy outfit of red or pink, possibly both. Fun!

However things are not perfect.

That is because every St. Valentine’s Day I wish, wish, wish that the Primates …

… of the Church had not removed his feast day from the official Church calendar. Isn’t that video cute? That is our regal Babatunde at the Buffalo Zoo. I filmed him just last weekend.

But back to the Primates of the Church. Their excuses include that too much confusion surrounds the real St. Valentine, that there may have been more than one St. Valentine — a theory I never remember hearing before, but whatever. You can read about all this on, I know, I should not be recommending plain old Wikipedia, but I am. It summarizes the situation pretty well.

Legend has it that St. Valentine would minister to the faithful — and these were the days when Christians would be fed to the lions. Wikipedia helpfully included this painting by 19th century French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme:

Wow, that lion looks like our Tiberius, at the Buffalo Zoo! He has the same distinctive dark mane. Let’s revisit my other video from last weekend, in case you missed my last post:

You have to forgive me, I see everything through the prism of the Buffalo Zoo.

Back to St. Valentine. It has long been written that he defied the Roman Emperor’s orders and secretly performed Christian weddings for couples. And there is this famous legend (take it, Wikipedia):

A common hagiography (Ed. note: A word I love!) describes Saint Valentine as a priest of Rome or as the former Bishop of Terni, an important town of Umbria, in central Italy. While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Valentinus (the Latin version of his name) was discussing the validity of Jesus. The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge's adopted blind daughter. If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl's sight, Asterius would do whatever he asked. Valentinus, praying to God, laid his hands on her eyes and the child's vision was restored.^[29]

Immediately humbled, the judge asked Valentinus what he should do. Valentinus replied that all of the idols around the judge's house should be broken, and that the judge should fast for three days and then undergo the Christian sacrament of baptism. The judge obeyed and, as a result of his fasting and prayer, freed all the Christian inmates under his authority. The judge, his family, and his forty-four member household of adult family members and servants were baptized.^[30]

This is the kind of man whom the Roman authorities would call a problem. And sure enough:

Valentinus was later arrested again for continuing to evangelise. He was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius Gothicus (Claudius II) himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to convince Claudius to embrace Christianity. Claudius refused and condemned Valentinus to death, commanding that Valentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs and beheaded. Valentinus refused and was executed outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14, 269.^[31]

An embellishment to this account states that before his execution, Saint Valentine wrote a note to Asterius's daughter signed "from your Valentine", which is said to have "inspired today's romantic missives".^[32]

Long story short: Why take Valentine off the official calendar?

It is not right to say we do not know much about this man. We know enough. We know the date he was martyred. We know where it happened. Sure, it was a million years ago, so there might be some confusion over details. And sure, we’re told well, taking him off the calendar doesn’t mean you can’t believe in him, it leaves it up to localities what to say about him … You get all this stuff handed to you on Catholic websites which is why I turned to Wikipedia.

Blah, blah, blah, I say, with my usual eloquence.

This ain’t right. It is like St. Christopher. He got taken off the calendar, with the same arguments, and it creates all this confusion and everyone says St. Christopher was “un-sainted.”

Funny how they do this to popular saints. In the case of St. Valentine, the situation is particularly frustrating.

Millennia of global brand recognition, thrown out the window!

It is annoying to open your missal to Feb. 14 and not see him listed!

And that is only the start of the annoyance.

In abandoning St. Valentine, the Catholic Church in effect threw him to the wolves, (or should we say the lions). Now nobody knows a thing about him, and people feel free to say whatever they want.

Once at The Buffalo News, I was proofreading a page and it had a freelancer’s story about Valentine’s Day. This “writer” put that St. Valentine had “rolled in the hay” with the jailer’s daughter. I always remember that phrase, “rolled in the hay.” What an idiot.

I went to the editor of the page. I had been reading the page for her as a favor. I said, “We have to cut this out. This isn’t true.”

And darned if the editor did not give me a tough time about it! She trusted this freelancer over me. It was difficult. However I held my ground. I said, “It’s not true.” Finally I guess she called the so-called writer. I do remember we fixed it.

When the Church lets things get vague, this kind of situations arise. It makes life difficult for all of us.

I demand that St. Valentine be put back on the calendar.

Can someone sign an executive order or something?