The process of commercialization.

[tablesaw]

The Feast of Saint Valentine.

Saint Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day.

Valentines Day.

V-Day.

sigh.

ThuNYTX: 8:30. Fun. FriNYTX: 31. Very nice. Probably would've taken less time had I remembered some crucial information, but seeking it out was fun in its own right.

Comments

[glowkitty]

bah. send anti-valentines.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I thought I heard someone on the radio saying that St. Valentine is no longer considered an official saint. Like St. Christopher. Is this true?

[tablesaw]

Well, that's kind of tricky.

The Feast of Saint Valentine actually refers to the veneration of the matyrdom of three early Christians with the name Valentine, two in Rome, one in Africa. Other than these names registered on early collections of martyrs, nothing historical is known about them. It has been noted that "in various Roman churches, eight complete bodies and one head of Saint Valentine are venerated." By tradition, their matyrdoms were celebrated on the same day. Also by tradition, the venerated martyrs of the early Church became the first saints.

Folklore often grows up around saints, even ones whose existence is well-documented. (Think about St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland were they never were to begin with.) After the Feast of St. Valentine, then relatively unknown, became the associated with the day when birds choose their mates, a lot of love-related folklore began to arise. But there's no reason to believe that any of the Valentines went around leaving notes for anyone. (Although, if they did, I would imagine they would sign them Valentine. I mean, it was their name.) Since then, the folklore has easily eclipsed the little record that exists. There's been a lot of emphasis from the Church, recently (read "in the last few centuries"), on the historicity of saints. So it's unsurprising that the Feast of Saint Valentine has been, well, deprecated. However, I believe that the martyrs are still venerated by those who have traditional relics.

But a short answer to the question is that if you were to walk into a Catholic church in America for Mass today, it would not be venerating St. Valentine, but instead the thoroughly-documented Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who devised the Cyrillic alphabet used for writing many European and Asian languages.

[aussie-nyc.livejournal.com]

St Cyril also committed awful crimes (http://home.att.net/~artcrime/hypatia.html) according to some. A vivid account is given in the Cosmos tv series (http://www.carlsagan.com/), which anyone is welcome to watch on DVD if they visit our place...

[highersoul.livejournal.com]

VD

*giggle*

[tablesaw]

The St. Cyril you're talking about lived about four hundred years before the St. Cyril I'm talking about.

fvd

[(Anonymous)]

ANNA'S HALF-BIRTHDAY.

[aussie-nyc.livejournal.com]

My bad. Lack of a Catholic upbringing and all that :) Y'know, if I had a kid and I think I'd like him/her to grow up to be a Saint, I'd research carefully and make sure I gave the child a name that hadn't been used before. Save confusion. Then you might be talking about St. Kegmeister or something, and I'd be spared the dreadful embarassment of mixing up my Cyrils.

Now kizlj tells me you have to be named after a Saint or something, in the Catholic church. Which begs the question of how any Saints ever got new names. I'm confused...