Every February 14, Valentine's Day, young couples will travel together and spend this holiday that belongs to couples sweetly. Shops on the street naturally do not miss business opportunities, and carry out various activities on this day to stimulate consumption. This festival, which originated in the West, is now a festival that has influenced culture and commerce around the world. However, Valentine's Day began as a Christian holiday with a sad story behind it.
Saint Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, known in English as Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day, was originally created to commemorate martyrs named Valentine. Many of the early Christian martyrs were called Valentine, and on February 14 they were commemorated by Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. Valentine of Rome was a Roman priest who was martyred in 269 and canonized as a saint by Pope Zelass I in 496 and buried on via Flaminia. The relics of St. Valentine are preserved in the Church of St. Valentine and the Catacombs in Rome, which remained an important pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages until the relics of St. Valentine were transferred to the Church of St. Prasede during Nicholas IV's tenure as Pope. The skull of St. Valentine is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmetin in Rome, and other relics were found at Carmel Church on Friar Street in Dublin, Ireland.
Pope Jelass I
Valentine of Terni was the bishop of Terni and is said to have been martyred in 273 by Emperor Aurelian. He was buried on the banks of the Flaminian River, but differently from the site of The Roman Valentine. His relics are displayed in the Cathedral of St. Valentine in Terni. Winchester's New Minster Abbey preserves a piece of St. Valentine's head that is said to be Terney's, a holy relic revered by the local people. The Catholic Encyclopedia also mentions a third saint named Valentine, who was mentioned in an early martyrdom on February 14. He and many of his companions died in Africa, but more information about him is unknown.
For different Christian denominations, St. Valentine's Day is a day of remembrance that is valued. In both the Anglican and Lutheran calendars, there is a St. Valentine's Day. However, in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic calendar, St. Valentine's Day on 14 February was removed from the general Roman calendar and subsumed into a specific calendar. The Catholic Church gives the following reason: although the commemoration of St. Valentine is ancient, it can only be commemorated according to a specific calendar. Because, apart from his name, no one knows about St. Valentine, only that he was buried in Flaminia on February 14.
Valentine 's
In Malta, the holiday is also being celebrated. There, people claim to have found relics of saints, and traditional Catholics around the world are celebrating the holiday, using the older calendar that preceded the Second Vatican Conference. In the Orthodox Church, St. Valentine's Day is designated as July 6, on which St. Valentine of Rome is revered by Orthodox Christians. In addition, the Orthodox Church commemorates Valentine of Terni on July 30.
So, what did Valentine do before he died to enjoy such a lofty status? The Christian Dictionary states that St. Valentine was a Roman priest imprisoned for helping persecuted Christians. Contemporary records of St. Valentine were most likely destroyed during the persecution of Diocletian in the early 4th century. In the fifth and sixth centuries, a work called The Passion of Mary and Matthew records a story about the martyrdom of St. Valentine in Rome, but the story inside may have borrowed from the torments of other saints, which was common in literature of the time. The same events are found in Bede's Book of Martyrdom, compiled in the 8th century. According to the book, St. Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and personally interrogated by the Roman Emperor Claudius II. Valentine impressed Claudius, who had a discussion with him in an attempt to convert him to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused, and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity. As a result, he was executed. Before he was executed, he reportedly performed a miracle, healing Julia, the blind daughter of the jailer Astius. The jailer's daughter and his 46 family members converted to Jesus and were baptized.
St. Valentine baptized people
2. Valentine's Day
So why did such a day to commemorate Christian saints become a romantic Valentine's Day? According to Henry Ansgar Kelly, the 13th-century Legend of Gold features a widely circulated episode added in the 18th century. It is said that the night before Valentine's execution, he personally wrote the first "Valentine" card, which was addressed to the blind daughter of the jailer Astius, with the words "Your Valentine", and this expression was later adopted by modern Valentine's Day letters. The British historian John Fox and the Carmel Friars point out that the blind daughter Julia personally planted a pink almond tree next to st. Valentine's tomb. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of eternal love and friendship. Whether there was a love between Valentine and Julia is unknown, but it is these legends that give St. Valentine's Day romantic overtones.
apricot
Another theory is that St. Valentine held secret Christian weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry. It is said that the Roman Emperor Claudius II forbade soldiers to marry in order to strengthen his army, because he believed that married men were not suitable to become good soldiers. According to legend, to remind these men of their vows and the love of God, St. Valentine cut parchment into the shape of a heart and gave it to the soldiers and persecuted Christians. This may be the reason why heart shapes are widely used on Valentine's Day. St. Valentine is said to wear an amethyst ring with the image of Cupid engraved on it, a symbol legally associated with love during the Roman Empire. The Roman soldiers would recognize the ring and ask him to officiate for them at the wedding. Amethyst became the birthstone of February and is considered a symbol of love, possibly also associated with St. Valentine. However, George Munger writes that this marriage ban was never promulgated, and Claudius II, after defeating the Goths, told his soldiers to take two or three women with him.
The first record of Valentine's Day and romantic love is Chaucer's poem "The Council of the Birds," which depicts a dreamy picture of a parliament in which birds choose their mates, a poem written by Chaucer to commemorate the first anniversary of the engagement of 15-year-old King Richard II of England with 15-year-old Bohemian Anne. In the poem Chaucer refers to St. Valentine's Day, in which he writes: "On St. Valentine's Day, all kinds of birds came in search of their mates...".
English poet Chaucer
The first to describe February 14 as an annual celebration of love was the Court Charter of Love. The Charter, allegedly promulgated by Charles VI of France in 1400, describes a lavish celebration attended by several members of the royal family, which included feasts, love and poetry competitions, contests and dances. At these celebrations, the ladies present will hear and adjudicate disputes from the lovers.
King Charles VI of France
In 1797, a British publisher published The Young Man's Lover, which recommended dozens of sentimental verses for young lovers who could not write their own poems. Printers have begun to produce a limited number of cards with poems and sketches, called "Valentine's Day cards." At the beginning of the 19th century, paper Valentine's Day cards were very popular in Britain. Chic Valentine's Day greeting cards are made with real lace and ribbons, and paper lace was introduced in the mid-19th century. Despite the high postage, in 1835, 60,000 Valentine's Day cards were sent in Britain. Nowadays, Valentine's Day has become a worldwide holiday, and lovers from all over the world celebrate love with their couples on this day.
Wen Shijun said
There are many theories about the origin of Valentine's Day, some people even associate Valentine's Day with the Ancient Roman Pastoral Day, and it is difficult to verify whether the legends of St. Valentine are true. But it is because of these legends that Christian holidays in honor of saints have been secularized and become worldwide romantic festivals. This can't help but make people sigh: love contains the greatest power in the world.
bibliography
Chaucer: Chaucer's Collected Writings, translated by Fang, The Commercial Press, 2020.
Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A Papal History, translated by Long Xiuqing, The Commercial Press, 2018.
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