Valentnes-Day-art - 9/20/08 History of and celebration of St. Valentines Day in the Middle Ages. NOTE: See also the files: holidays-msg, saints-msg, Holiday-Celeb-lnks, Spring-Celeb-lnks, Love-in-th-MA-art. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ From: dickeney at access2.digex.net (Dick Eney) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Valentine's Day Date: 5 Feb 1997 21:57:10 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA Valentine's Day is mentioned in Chaucer (1381) with respect to "byrds" choosing their mates (byrds being a synonym even then for young women). Lydgate's _Min. (Minnesinger?) Poems_ lists one in 1430 "A balade made .. in wyse of chesing loves at Saint Valentyne's Day". Later evidence shows that one custom was to embrace the first person of the opposite sex that you met that day as your valentine. Young people would meet the night before, on Valentine's Eve, to draw lots to see who would be their valentine the next day. These two customs persisted at least through 1729. So a poem written to your Valentine would be quite appropriately medieval. =Tamar the Gypsy (sharing account dickeney at access.digex.net) From: Hillary Greenslade Date: February 14, 2006 6:53:11 PM CST To: ansteorra Subject: [Ansteorra] Happy St. Valentines Day Greetings on this St. Valentines Day, If you want to receive a daily posting of the Medieval Saints days, then consider subscribing to the yahoo group for 'Medieval Saints'. Subscribers cannot post to the group, only receive a daily 'saint' listing. Today's Saint Valentine information: Enjoy, Hillary --------------------------------------------------- St. Valentine, bishop of Interamna (Terni) Also known as Valentine of Terni; probably the same as Valentine of Rome Beaten and beheaded c.269 at Rome; buried on the Flaminian Way; relics later translated to the Church of Saint Praxedes Commemorated February 14 (removed from the calendar) Patronage: affianced couples, against fainting, bee keepers, betrothed couples, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greeting card manufacturers, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travelers, young people In art, he is shown as a bishop with a crippled or epileptic child at his feet; bishop with a rooster nearby; bishop refusing to adore an idol; bishop being beheaded; priest bearing a sword; priest holding a sun; priest giving sight to a blind girl; birds; roses; St. Valentine http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15254a.htm At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city. In William of Malmesbury's time what was known to the ancients as the Flaminian Gate of Rome and is now the Porta del Popolo, was called the Gate of St. Valentine. The name seems to have been taken from a small church dedicated to the saint which was in the immediate neighborhood. Of both these St. Valentines some sort of Acta are preserved but they are of relatively late date and of no historical value. Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing further is known. Saint Valentine's Day The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read: For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate. For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice. Perhaps the earliest to be found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet, John Gower, written in French; but Lydgate and Clauvowe supply other examples. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each other their Valentines. In the Paston Letters, Dame Elizabeth Brews writes thus about a match she hopes to make for her daughter (we modernize the spelling), addressing the favoured suitor: "And, cousin mine, upon Monday is Saint Valentine's Day and every bird chooses himself a mate, and if it like you to come on Thursday night, and make provision that you may abide till then, I trust to God that ye shall speak to my husband and I shall pray that we may bring the matter to a conclusion." Shortly after the young lady herself wrote a letter to the same man addressing it "Unto my rightwell beloved Valentine, John Paston Esquire". ----------------------- The Origins of St. Valentine's Day http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/ValentinesDay/ The Catholic Church no longer officially honors St. Valentine, but the holiday has both Roman and Catholic roots. The roots of St. Valentine's Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year. Pope Gelasius I was, understandably, less than thrilled with this custom. So he changed the lottery to have both young men and women draw the names of saints whom they would then emulate for the year (a change that no doubt disappointed a few young men). Instead of Lupercus, the patron of the feast became Valentine. For Roman men, the day continued to be an occasion to seek the affections of women, and it became a tradition to give out handwritten messages of admiration that included Valentine's name. There was also a conventional belief in Europe during the Middle Ages that birds chose their partners in the middle of February. Thus the day was dedicated to love, and people observed it by writing love letters and sending small gifts to their beloved. Legend has it that Charles, duke of Orleans, sent the first real Valentine card to his wife in 1415, when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. (He, however, was not beheaded, and died a half-century later of old age.) ----------------------- Jesuit valentines, described by anti-papist Anglican Archbishop John Gee in his "Hold Fast Sermon" (1624): Some Jesuites . . . upon S. Valentines day, chusing some female Saint for their Valentine; one takes Saint Agatha, another S. Clare, another S. Lucie, another S. Catherine, another S. Cicely, &c. I asked them what they meant to chuse such Valentines. They answered mee, that in respect of their Vow, they could have no Valentine that lived here upon earth: and in regard of their Angelicall life, they were to clause Valentines in heaven. I asked them, whether they thought those Saints knew that they had chosen them for their Valentines. Oh yes, say they, we shall be honoured all this yeare by that Valentine wee make choice off, and she will intercede for us, and to some of us our Valentine doth appear in visible bodily shape, telling us what to doe all the yeare after. Gee, 43-4 ----------------------- More on St. Valentine: http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0214.htm#vale Edited by Mark S. Harris Valentnes-Day-msg Page 4 of 4