Mystery of romantic saint

by Steve Cunningham< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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ON 14 February many lucky people will receive a card adorned with a big red heart, filled with romantic words. And all in the name of a saint called Valentine.

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But who was Valentine Cynics may suspect he was an invention by card manufacturers, chocolate-makers and florists.

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But no, he did exist, although his origins are a little hazy. Broadly speaking, he was a Christian martyr. Here are several versions of the legend:

• Valentine was a Roman priest who was martyred during the persecution of Claudius the Goth about 270AD and buried on the Flaminian Way.�
• Valentine was a young man who helped persecuted Christians. He was jailed, became a believer, and was clubbed to death on 14 February, 269. While in prison he is said to have sent messages to friends saying, 'Remember your Valentine' and 'I love you.'
• Valentine was a priest who secretly married couples, defying Emperor Claudius who temporarily forbade weddings.
• Valentine was a Christian imprisoned for refusing to worship pagan gods. Befriending the jailer's daughter, he is said to have cured her of a serious illness through prayer, and on the date of his execution (14 February) he is said to have written her a letter signed 'Your Valentine.'

The most abiding legend is of Valentine, patron saint of and first bishop of Terni. His miracles made him famous, but he was persecuted by the Roman Senate of Aurelian and died as a martyr on 14 February, 273.He gained the reputation, after celebrating the marriage of a young Christian girl to a pagan legionnaire, as the protector of all sweethearts.

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To this day, couples meet at St Valentine's basilica in Terni's Festa della Promessa (Festival of the Promise) to ask the saint's blessing for their weddings.

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St Valentine's Day may also be a hangover from the Roman Lupercalia, a pagan love festival, on 15 February. In 496AD, Pope Gelasius changed Lupercalia from the 15th to the 14th to try to stop the pagan revels.

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The church agreed that there was nothing wrong with celebrating love, but objected to the pagan elements.

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Part of Lupercalia included the ceremony of putting girls' names in a box and letting the boys draw them out. These couples were paired off for the next year. This practice was probably the beginning of the Valentine's card, although the first printed ones didn't appear until the 1780s.�

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The AnswerBank Valentine's Card Competition

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The AnswerBank�asked you for four lines of poetry that best sum up the Valentine's mood.