The Saint of lovers

Today we are celebrating Saint Valentine's day, the day of lovers so I thought it was only natural that we pay tribute to the Italian  Saint of love, Saint Valentine.

The story of the saint and the origins of the feast day are clouded by myth, the earliest version of the story dates back to ancient Rome and the pagan festival of Lupercalia. 

Shepherds outside the city walls waged a constant battle against hungry wolves and prayed to the god Lupercus to watch over their flocks. Every year in February, the Romans would repay the god’s vigilance with a festival, which doubled as a celebration of fertility and the onset of Spring. Newlywed women would be whipped by februa (strips of goat skin and the derivation of our word February) to purify their bodies in preparation for childbirth.

One of the highlights of Lupercalia came on February 14 with an erotic tribute to Juno Februata, the goddess of feverish love. The names of maidens were drawn at random by young men and the resultant couple would become partners at the feast and even for life.

“The bishop was executed on February 1. On the eve of his death, he sent a passionate letter to his beloved, signed simply ‘your Valentine’.

The festival was extremely popular and lasted for centuries. After Constantine had christianised Rome, the Church tried to clamp down on pagan activities and Lupercalia, with its lurid temptations, was an obvious target. Pope Galasius, in the 5th Century, needed to find a suitable replacement for the wolf god Lupercus and chose a bishop who had been martyred 200 years previously: Valentine.

The emperor Aurelius had imprisoned Valentine in 272 AD for continuing to marry Christian soldiers, despite royal decree (Aurelius needed them to fight his wars). In prison, the bishop cured his jailer’s daughter of blindness and the pair fell head over heels in love (quite literally ‘love at first sight’.) Ultimately, their desires were frustrated as the bishop was executed on February 14 the following year. On the eve of his death, the condemned man sent a passionate letter to his beloved, signed simply ‘your Valentine’.

The legacy of St Valentine has survived long after his death. There was such an uproar over his execution among the Christian community in Rome, that the authorities had to bury his body quickly to avoid a riot. But three of his followers found his body and took him to Terni in Umbria, where he is perfectly embalmed in the Basilico de S Valentino.

Young lovers still travel to the tomb to ask his blessing and the city throws a month long festival in his honour every year in February. Nowadays, his memory has been hijacked by card sharks and florists, but the ancient tradition of proclaiming love on February 14 remains.

♥ Happy Saint Valentine's day ♥

Leeann x