Ancient Christian Origins of Saint Valentine’s Day
Now a
commercialized holiday celebrating modern Western courtship and romance, the
ancient Christian origins of Saint Valentine’s Day are largely forgotten. The actual Orthodox liturgical Feast Days of
Valentinos (Greek)/Valentinus (Latin) commemorate two Early Christian saints,
Saint Valentine the Presbyter of Rome (July 6) and Hieromartyr Valentine the
Bishop of Intermna (Terni), Italy (July 30).
Although the historical records for these two saints are not complete,
and what we do know about their lives has often been subjected to considerable
confusion, their martyrdoms are well known to us. Because of their refusal to renounce their
faith in Christ, both Valentines were imprisoned, tortured, and executed around
270, during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor, Claudius II.
Because
they shared the same name, were contemporaries, resided near each other in
central Italy, and ultimately, shared similar fates, the two Valentines’
personal histories were intermingled and conflated over the centuries,
producing inconsistencies and puzzlement in many accounts of their lives. What most sources indicate, however, is that
Bishop Valentine was renowned during his lifetime as a healer of the sick and
blind, while Valentine the Presbyter would become notable in the historical
memory of Christians, originally both Eastern and Western, as a courageous
steward of marriage. Indeed, because of
his connection to the sacrament of marriage, it would be the latter Valentine,
the Presbyter from Rome, who would serve as the inspiration for the Late
Medieval Western literary foundations for what would by the nineteenth century
evolve into today’s popular, secular Valentine’s Day.
According
to the most common narrative, Presbyter Valentine, a priest in Rome, drew the
ire of Emperor Claudius by ignoring the imperial ban against allowing men who
had not fulfilled their military obligations to the Empire to marry. Remaining loyal to his moral commitment and beliefs
as a Christian priest, Valentine refused to compromise the sanctity of marriage
to the will of the state. In defiance of
imperial edict, Valentine continued to unite and bless Christian couples, which
were legally barred from marrying. This
association with young Christian beloveds became the muse over several
centuries for an increasingly fictionalized, romantic expropriation and
reconstruction of Saint Valentine in the West, one that has led to the modern
Saint Valentine’s Day. Indeed, the memory
of Saint Valentine became so distorted and uncertain over the centuries, that
the Roman Catholic Church ended its commemoration and veneration—traditionally
associated with mid-February in the West—of him as a calendar saint in 1969,
effectively surrendering the historical Valentine to his appropriation and
exploitation by Western popular culture.
As in
other matters of reverence and faith, the Orthodox Church’s veneration of Saint
Valentine remains immutable.
Secularization in the West accounts in large part for the Papacy’s move
to discard the memory of Saint Valentine’s martyrdom in the face of commerce
and frivolity, but Orthodoxy still honors Saint Valentine, the Presbyter from
Rome, for his martyrdom—and as for all its saints, the Orthodox Church honors
St. Valentine as a model of the life in Christ.
For
Orthodox Christians, Saint Valentine’s Day is most fully understood as a
celebration of romantic love and of God’s love.
Indeed, Valentine was willing to sacrifice his life not for Eros but in
order to sanctify and make whole the union of young couples through the
blessing of God’s love. Demonstrating
our love for God and reaching our fulfillment in Christ through our
relationships with our spouses, families, and communities, is a way of life that
is at the heart of Orthodoxy. By living
a life in emulation of Christ, Saint Valentine shared this fundamental truth of
Orthodox Christianity with the world, one that is more beautiful and lasts
longer than flowers and cards—it is eternal.
By Dr.
Alexandros K. Kyrou,
Professor
of History at Salem State University
Source: http://blogs.goarch.org/blog/-/blogs/the-historical-and-orthodox-saint-valentine
