507. Happy Not Saint Valentine’s Day!

… at least not today in the Orthodox Church, when we commemorate Saints Auxentios, Maron and the martyrs Nicholas and Damian. No hearts and flowers there. We Orthodox do commemorate two Saint Valentines – one on July 6, the other on July 30

A Confusing Introduction

I thought this was going to be a simple Post to research and write. Wrong, as usual. The material on this subject is perplexing and hard to get at. I promise I’ll get some of it wrong. If there are any Valentine specialists here present, please correct me.

Because, all told, according to Orthodox Wiki, there were ten Saint Valentines. Some sources list as many as fourteen, though I think some are confused with others. In ancient times, both East and West, Valentine (Valentinus) was a popular men’s name (like John or James today), so it’s not surprising that some were saints, some of them martyrs. Almost certainly we know of only a few of them

In Western Christianity, at least two Valentines are commemorated on February 14. They appear to be the ones we Orthodox remember on the days mentioned above.

So today, for your edification and mine:

1  I’ll quickly run you through the various Saint Valentines. Some of the information about them appears to be what we might call very legendary. About some we know almost nothing.

2  Then we’ll come to the issue of how Saint Valentine’s Day came to be associated with hearts and flowers. * I thought there was a simple answer to that. There isn’t.

• and chocolates. Don’t forget the chocolates.

Therefore, on this February 14, first you are about to receive…

Saint Valentine of Genoa who in the Fourth Century aided monastic expansion. Died in the year 307. His relics were not discovered till 985 on May 2.

Saint Valentine of Trier in Germany. A bishop who was martyred during the persecutions of Diocletian at the beginning of the Third Century. Commemorated on July 16.

Saint Valentine of Strasbourg (Alsace, France), commemorated on September 2, believed to be the date of his martyrdom.

Saint Valentine of Viterbo * (central Italy), priest and missionary, beheaded on November 3 during a persecution of Emperor Diocletian. 

• Just for your information, the Google map of Viterbo shows some holy sites and also “McDonald’s Viterbo Sao Paolo”.

Saint Valentine of Ravenna was a martyr with others in 305. Feast day December 16. Some sources list two other Saint Valentines of Ravenna, though it’s possible one or more of them were confused with Saint Vitale of Ravenna.

Saint Valentine of Africa *, martyred there, of whom nothing else is known, and for that reason was celebrated on February 14, with the other more famous Valentines.

• North Africa

There is also sometimes listed a Saint Valentine the Greek about whom nothing seems to be known. I wonder if he is the same as the first Saint Valentine listed above.

 

2  Valentine Hearts and Flowers *

• and candy. Don’t forget the chocolates.

I thought this had a simple explanation. It doesn’t.

In many places we read that the modern association of Saint Valentine with love and lovers developed out of the ancient Roman fertility feast of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on February 15. It is said that in early times the Church tacked that pagan celebration onto our celebration of Saint Valentine(s) on February 14. Thus Lupercalia was Christianized, or Saint Valentine was paganized, depending on one’s point of view.

That’s what I intended to write about today. It explains everything. Except for the fact that it didn’t happen.

Here is a description of Lupercalia.

“Each Lupercalia began with the sacrifice by the Luperci of goats and a dog, after which two of the Luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads were touched with a bloody knife, and the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk; the ritual required that the two young men laugh. The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the sacrificial animals and ran in two bands around the Palatine hill, striking with the thongs at any woman who came near them. A blow from the thong was supposed to render a woman fertile.” from Encyclopedia Brittanica   Some other accounts describe the celebration as considerably more erotic.

In the first place, it would certainly be difficult for the Church to turn any part of that ceremony into a celebration of romantic love! Besides, romantic love as we know it did not exist in those days. Marriages then were arranged by the families and had no basis in what we now call romance, which is a relatively modern thing. Many pagan young men in various ways “sowed their oats”, as we used to describe it, but that had nothing to do with love.

Add to that the fact that there is no evidence whatever that the ancient Church celebrated love on Saint Valentine’s Day. Apparently that first came with Chaucer in the Thirteenth Century.

Here is a well-written and more extensive account of the above. https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2020/02/the-myth-of-pagan-origins-of-valentines.html

• If you want to keep up with the Church’s calendar of saints, day by day, there is no better place than Mr Sadinopoulos’ Blog, which contains a vast amount of material, easily accessible: https://www.mystagogyresourcecenter.com

All the cute little Cupids on the Valentine cards look positively pagan, but they’re not. Cupid was the Roman god of love – actually the Greek god Eros.When he shot you with his arrow, you were charged with uncontrollable passion, not love.

During the Nineteenth Century, in England, the custom began of sending cards to loved ones on Valentine’s Day. At the time  pagan deities were fashionable, though not worshiped.  (“By Jove” [Jupiter), the elegant English gentleman might say, because “By God” wasn’t nice.) So it was natural to want Cupid, the god of “love”, on the cards.  However, Victorian folk definitely did not want to put (forgive me) this, the real Cupid, on a Valentine card…

…so he was reduced to this.

 

So, despite all, modern Valentine’s Day is neither particularly Christian nor particularly pagan. You notice that almost nobody calls it Saint Valentine’s Day any more. During February the Hallmark Channel goes into overdrive * with their even-sweeter-than-usual romantic stories, but with no naked pagan gods and (so far as I know, and I hope I’m wrong) nary a mention of God.

• an ancient expressiono. Look it up.

And that is the story of our modern Valentine extravaganza. I should add that I love it, and I hope you do too. Enjoy the hearts and flowers.*

• and candy. Don’t forget the chocolates.

One more thing.

The Orthodox Church needs to develop a pastoral theology of romantic love and what to do with it.  (A “theology” because God must be at the center of all things.) Through almost all of Orthodox history (and still in some places) marriages were arranged by families, and romance had nothing to do with it. Almost all of Orthodox theology was written by monks – God bless them,  but they really wouldn’t understand, would they? Saint John Chrysostom had many good things to say about marriage and family, but addressed almost entirely to the men.

Romantic love, as we know it is a fairly new thing, and it involves both men and women: couples seeking each other on their own, “falling in love”, loving each other not only because of eros, but also because of the quality of the other person, how much they enjoy each other and find lovable in their character, their personality. .

We need Orthodox guidance for our people about how to “handle” romantic love (eros), how to enlarge it into agape, which is what keeps marriage alive over the years. I’ve been married nearly 58 years now. When I tell my wife “I love you”, it still has something of the old thrill, but it also has a much “fuller” feeling and meaning,  now – I don’t know how else to express it.

Another thing that might be discussed: What about the on-line “dating” sites by which young Orthodox men and women are meeting each other these days, not in person but by Zoom, for example. Is this a good thing or not? I know a number of very good marriages that have resulted from this. But it’s also missing something: They can’t hold hands that way. I feel certain they don’t kiss the screen! It’s easy to be misled when the person isn’t present with you.

And there’s more.

Perhaps this has all been studied and written about. I hope so.

Next Week: Preparing your family for a good Lent

Week after Next: The Church’s Last Minute Instructions before Lent

 

Sources consulted in the Post above:

Catholic Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia Brittanica,

Orthodox Wiki

orthochristian.com,

orthodoxcchristian.com

https://blogs.goarch.org/blog/-/blogs/is-valentine-s-day-an-orthodox-feast-day-