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From the Editor
From the Editor
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Stained glass depiction of St. Valentine
February is here and with it comes Valentine’s Day. Did you know that the St. Valentine who inspired the holiday may have been two different men? Officially recognized by the church, St. Valentine is known to be a real person who died around 270 A.D. However, his true identity was questioned as early as 496 A.D. by Pope Gelasis I, who referred to the martyr and his acts as “being known only to God.” One account from the 1400s describes Valentine as a temple priest who was beheaded near Rome by the emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples wed. A different account claims that Valentine was the Bishop of Terni, also martyred by Claudius II on the outskirts of Rome. Because of the similarities of these accounts, it’s thought they may refer to the same person. Enough confusion surrounds the true identity of St. Valentine that the Catholic Church discontinued liturgical veneration of him in 1969, though his name remains on the list of officially recognized saints. The saint we celebrate on St. Valentine’s Day is known officially as St. Valentine of Rome in order to differentiate him from dozens or so other Valentines on the list.
The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer may have invented Valentine’s Day. The poet often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts that he represented as real. No record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375. In his work “Parliament of Foules,” he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day – an association that didn’t exist until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to Feb. 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. When Chaucer wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentine’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate,” he may have invented the holiday we know today.
Although Valentine’s Day focuses on mainly romantic love, there is much room in all our hearts for love for one another. It’s a great time to think about how much we truly lack loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Pope Francis tells us that we must even go further and ask God for strength to love our enemies. During one of his homilies the pope said, “Ask God for the grace to love your enemies. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This is the Christian innovation. It is the Christian difference.”
The pope went on to say that “the worship of God” contradicts the “culture of hatred.” He said one can fight this culture of hatred by not giving into the “cult of complaint.”
“How many times do we complain about the things we lack, about the things that go wrong! Jesus knows about all the things that don’t work. He knows that there is always going to be someone who dislikes us. Or someone who will make us miserable. All he asks us to do is pray and love,” he said.
The pope added, “Jesus with his limitless love, raises the bar of our humanity. Today let us choose love, whatever the cost, even if it means going against the tide. Let us not yield to the thinking of this world or content ourselves with half measures,” Pope Francis said. “Then we will be true Christians and our world will be more human.”
Sounds like great advice for us today when we live in a time of so much hatred and division. Let’s celebrate Valentine’s Day this year and remember “Let all that you do, be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14).
Remember, after reading Bayou Catholic, pass it on to a friend or relative who might not be attending Mass. It’s one of the great ways to do your part in spreading the Good News! BC
