Saint of the Day: St. Valentines Day

Noel Ocol

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

It's February 14. Love is in the air as a all sorts of people rush to overwhelm the Hallmark store, the florist and the fancy restaurants. Everyone, it seems, is out in full pursuit of love and affection. Valentines Day has become a major secular annual holiday, so much so that many Catholics forget that there is a "saint" missing in front of the name of the day - Saint Valentine.

So let's have a quick look at that saint whose name has become synonymous with the tradition of courtly love.

So much of St. Valentine's life is not known with certainty. Various legends and traditions passed on from the early Church are attributed to him. In fact, all that is reliably known of the saint is his name and the fact that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia close to the Ponte Milvio to the north of Rome on February 14.

Because so much of his life is unreliable, the Catholic Church in 1969 removed his name from the General Roman Calendar, leaving his liturgical celebration to local calendars. The Catholic Church continues to recognize him as a saint, listing him as such in the February 14th entry in the Roman Martyrology and authorizing liturgical veneration of him on February 14.

Rather than going into a description of his life,I thought I might share this great little video from Catholic Online that sums everything up.

Additionally, I found this article on 6 interesting and surprising facts about St. Valentine that you can use to impress your beloved at dinner tonight.

Now, if all else fails, you can always try one of these great Catholic pick-up lines, as demonstrated here in the Catholic Pick-Up Line song.