Cupid can kiss my.........

Let's just start this off by saying three things.

1) I'm hopelessly curious.
2) I like knowing as close to the truth as I can about common things
3) I think Valentines Day is the unholy capitalistic child of DeBeers, Russell Stover, and Hallmark.

 

Saint Valentine (or Saint Valentinus) refers to one of at least three martyred saints of ancient Rome. The feast of Saint Valentine was formerly celebrated on February 14 by the Roman Catholic Church until the revised calendar 1969.

The feast of St. Valentine was first decreed in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine— and Saint George— among those "...whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." The creation of the feast for such dimly conceived figures may have been an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia that was still being celebrated in 5th century Rome, on February 15.

 

The Lupercalia was an annual Roman festival held on February 15 to honour Faunus, god of fertility and forests. Justin Martyr identified Faunus as Lupercus, 'the one who wards off the wolf', but his identification is not supported by any earlier classical sources. The festival was celebrated near the cave of Lupercal on the Palatine (one of the seven Roman hills), to expiate and purify new life in the Spring. This festival's origins are older than the founding of Rome.

The religious ceremonies were directed by the Luperci, the "brothers of the wolf", priests of Faunus, dressed only in a goatskin. During Lupercalia, a dog and two male goats were sacrificed. Two patrician youths were anointed with the blood, which was wiped off with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to smile and laugh. The Luperci afterwards dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed goats, in imitation of Lupercus, and ran round the Palatine Hill with straps, cut from the skins, in their hands. These were called Februa. Girls would line up on their route to receive lashes from these whips. (Ohhh, kinky!!)  This was supposed to ensure fertility.

 

As Gelasius implied, nothing is known about the lives of any of these martyrs, however. Many of the current legends surrounding them were invented in the late Middle Ages in France and England, when the feast day of February 14 became associated with romantic love. No such sentiment appears in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read books of the High Middle Ages. The Legenda Aurea gives sufficient details of the saints and for each day of the liturgical year to inspire a homily on the occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine, has him refusing to deny Christ before the "Emperor Claudius" in the year 280. Before his head was struck off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. Jacobus makes a play with the etymology of "Valentine," "as containing valour", but there is nothing of hearts and last notes signed "from your Valentine," as is sometimes suggested in modern works of sentimental piety.
The historical 2nd-century bishop Valentinus (died ca 153) is not venerated on any day of the Roman Catholic calendar, for his teachings were declared heretical and his works suppressed. Valentinus or Valentinius was the best known and for a time the most successful Christian Gnostic theologian, and a charismatic though divisive figure. Bands of his followers could still be found in the 5th century, when a more acceptable Valentinus was recollected and canonized.

 

*laughs* Interesting. Yet another pagan holiday that was 'overwritten' by the Roman Catholic Church and has now been warped into something neither the pagans nor the church fathers would recognize. Maybe it's a logical progression. First the Pagans, then the Catholics, then the Corporations. It happened with Christmas - I'm so not going to get into how amusingly pagan THAT holiday is. The Corporations haven't fully taken over Easter - another giggle worthy previously Pagan celebration - yet, most likely because they haven't figured out how to really PUMP the kids marketing tactics, but give em time - look at how many centuries it took for Valentines Day to really get going.....