The Physician St. Valentine

by Dr. Stephenie Slahor

Although history has lost much of the story of the man known as St. Valentine, some historians believe that there are 52 saints by that name, one of whom was a charitable person who lived during the Middle Ages and spent most of his time visiting the sick and needy. When he became old and bedridden, he continued his work by sending messages to those he could not visit in person.
  Other historians believe that St. Valentine was a third-century Christian priest and physician who was beheaded on February 14, 270 AD, by Emperor Claudius II and given a dishonorable burial by being interred in a public road-Rome's Via Flaminia. St. Julius I later built a basilica over the site to honor the priest-physician. Still other historians believe that St. Valentine was a Bishop of Terni, Italy, who was also martyred by beheading in Rome in the year 273 AD.

Compounding the problem of discovering the true identity of the "real" St. Valentine is the contention by some that the martyred priest-physician and the Bishop of Terni were one and the same person, and that perhaps through the passage of time and multiple re-tellings, his story mistakenly developed into two different stories.

Valentine Customs
T here is no solid historical reason why the February 14th feast day of St. Valentine became associated with romance. Maybe it is because people of the Middle Ages believed it to be the date on which birds chose their mates, a fact that even Chaucer and Shakespeare mentioned in their writings. Or perhaps it recalls the Roman Lupercalia festival in honor of Juno Februalis, at which boys drew from a group of tablets containing girls' names. The boy would devote himself for one year to the girl whose name he had drawn.
  During the Middle Ages, the custom of drawing names was revived, but the partnering was only for St. Valentine's day, not for a year. Later, other variations developed, such as drawing names on Valentine's Eve, or both girls and boys drawing names. And if a boy drew a girl's name and she drew his, that was considered an omen that they'd certainly marry. Yet another St. Valentine's day custom holds that the first person of the opposite sex seen on Valentine's Day (except for family members) became one's Valentine.
  No matter which way the Valentine partner was chosen, it was customary to present him or her a token gift-a piece of jewelry, gloves, a love-knot of straw or embroidered cloth, a sweet, or an item shaped like a heart or the Valentine partner's initial. Men even gave their ladies a heart-shaped emblem she could wear on her sleeve (the origin of our saying "wearing her heart on her sleeve").
  The day was celebrated by feasting and fun. Crushed herbs were floated atop bowls of rosewater to create fragrance in the dining room, and the men fashioned "love lanterns" for their ladies by hollowing out turnips, carving designs or other decorations on the surface, and placing a candle inside, much like our modern day Jack o'Lanterns. The feasting included eating seed-laden fruit, such as figs, apples, or pomegranates-fruits which represented fertility. And the Valentine's Day drinking toast was "Amor Vincit Omnia," or "Love Conquers All."
  Valentine's Day prognostications were performed by throwing hemp seeds over one's left shoulder into a bowl shallowly filled with water. The shape the seeds made indicated one's "fortune," such as an image of an arrow for hunting, a house for wealth, a crown for nobility, the shape of an initial for someone who bore that initial, and so on, depending on the interpreter and interpretation. Irregardless, Valentine's Day continues to be a holiday to celebrate love, in honor of the generosity of an ancient priest-physician.