Be my Valentine!

It’s Valentine’s day. Some of you guys have already received your gifts. Some of you have not, but it is fine(I sound just like my love interest. I guess she is rubbing off on me). Love is in the air. The gift shops are packed with last minute shoppers. Gift cards, Red Roses, dinner at a fancy restaurant, leather bags, shoes, personalized accessories – RFID blocking wallets, belts, ties and pocket squares, wine, cufflinks; bath and body pamper gift basket, a vacation in Aruba or snuggled together on the couch binging on Netflix or old TCM movies, engraved jewellery, lingerie, cakes, perfume and Chocolates are a few popular choices. Whatever love gift you decide to get let it resonate the love and passion that compelled you to get it in the first place. Picture your loved one’s face. Picture the excitement and appreciation that would follow when you present it. I am sure if you do, then you would make the right choice.

But what is Valentine? Or more precisely who was Valentine?

St. Valentine was a Roman priest and physician who achieved martyrdom during Christian persecution by emperor Claudius II Gothicus at about AD 269. He later became patron saint of lovers, epileptics and beekeepers.

St. Valentine (226 to Feb. 14, 269 AD). The feast of St. Valentine was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496)

According to legend, St. Valentine signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and healed from blindness. Another common legend states that he defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war.

Did you know the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer might have invented Valentine’s day as we know it today vide his poem,”Parliament of Foules,” which associated the St.Valentine’s feast day with a day birds and humans found a mate. Thus triggering all this buzz and fuss over Valentine’s day in modern times. So fellas don’t blame the saint, blame the poet.

Did you also know that you could celebrate Valentine’s day several times a year, if you wanted to, on account of the many saints named Valentine ( including Valentina) virgin martyred in Palestine on July 25, A.D. 308 ?

Popular Valentine feast day’s celebration include February 14 (Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran Churches);
July 6 and July 30 (Eastern Orthodox).

Did you also know there is confusion over the true identity of the first St. Valentine due to conflicting accounts of a priest and a Bishop of Terni of the same name from the same period ?