The War On St. Valentine

I'm just beginning to recover from the annual push by the Christianist to force everyone to observe the Christianists' winter holiday. You know, the one where they run around pretending to be persecuted because not everyone says "Merry Christmas" every damn time that they sell you a stick of gum or complete a telephone call. Where they scream about not being able to erect their religious symbols all over public land. Where they've come up with lots of cute, if not necessarily true sayings such as: "Jesus Is The Reason For The Season!" and "Merry Christmas: It's Worth Saying!"

So I wonder what the deal is with their complete silence concerning the War on St. Valentine's Day?? They used to be so serious about celebrating the Saint's day! For example, Wikipedia notes that: On St. Valentine's Day in 1349, roughly 2,000 Jews were burned to death by Christian mobs in Strasbourg. These mobs, led by nobles who owed large sums to Jewish moneylenders (usury being a sin for Christians), blamed the Jews for poisoning the city's wells and causing the bubonic plague.

Of course, The feast of St. Valentine was first decreed in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing is known about the lives of any of these martyrs.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the saint whose feast was celebrated on the day now known as St. Valentine's Day was possibly one of three martyred men named Valentinus who lived in the late third century, during the reign of Emperor Claudius II (died 270):

a priest in Rome
a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni)
a martyr in the Roman province of Africa

Various dates are given for their martyrdoms: 269, 270 or 273. The name was a popular one in Late Antiquity, with its connotations of valens, "being strong".

. . .

The Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read books of the High Middle Ages, gives sufficient details of the saints and for each day of the liturgical year to inspire a homily on each occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine has him refusing to deny Christ before the "Emperor Claudius" in the year 280. Before his head was cut off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. Jacobus makes a play with the etymology of "Valentine", "as containing valour".

The Legenda Aurea does not contain anything about hearts and last notes signed "from your Valentine", as is sometimes suggested in modern works of sentimental piety. Many of the current legends surrounding them appear in the late Middle Ages in France and England, when the feast day of February 14 became associated with romantic love.

But, as we know, there's been a terrible war on St. Valentine. Nowadays, no one says, "Happy St. Valentine's Day!" No, it's "Happy VD Day!" or "Will You Be Mine!" when we all know that the Saint Is The Reason For The Pink Paint! You never get a card with a picture of a beheaded St. Valentine on it; why, you're likely to get a card with a picuture of Pagan Cupid! In fact, people seem to have completely secularized this holiday! In fact, the day has been taken over by those who are far more interested in getting laid than in losing their haid! By those who are more concerned with being in love than in St. Valentine above! By those who want chocolate and roses more than they want Jesus and Moses! (~Slaps own face~ OK, got a little carried away, there.) And when was the last time that a huge plastic statue of St. Valentine getting beheaded was erected in front of your town hall?

And yet, the Christianists seem perfectly happy to have ceded this holiday to Hallmark and the florists. Come on, Christianists! You're not just going to let evil secularists win this one without a fight -- are you? What's up with that?