The Valentine-Shaped Heart

Though saecular-minded features far out-distance them, I've run across several articles and blog posts reminding us to keep the saint in St. Valentine's Day. And, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see these reminders, but, I don't think the wine and roses ads or even the deluge of cartoon pink and red Valentine cards in the seasonal aisle at Walmart are an evil thing necessarily.

I do imagine any one of the three St. Valentines of the first centuries of the Church would be shocked to know that this day had become the holiday dedicated to romantic love ~ in their name. And, while the whole Cupid bit and the pink hearts would undoubtedly cause some raised eyebrows amongst the group of them watching us from the Heavenly Court (coffee cups in hand), I imagine that the concept of the day wouldn't upset them too much. Love, true love, in its pure form of Christian charity, in the commitment between a husband and wife, or even in the hopes of young people looking for mates is never a bad thing.

It was the hope of the Church in its early days to supplant pagan practices, introducing Catholic feasts and customs which would change evil habits into good ones. It may be that the love-connection to St. Valentine's Day resulted from a desire to replace the pagan celebration of Lupercalia which in ancient days occured around February 14th. Unfortunately, it's true that most do not connect the lives of the saints with this feast day (Alas!), but it's also probably true that the Church did intend for this feast day to maintain an innocent flavor of love and courtship.

And, though none of the St. Valentine's stories appears to have any verified story involving young love or matchmaking, the pairing of the love theme with these men is not really so incongruous. All three of the Valentines whose legends survived the centuries were martyrs. And, Heaven knows, nobody understands true love like the martyrs. Their love imitates Christ's most closely in its completeness. And while St. Raphael is the saint who owns the distinction of being the heavenly matchmaker, any one of the St. Valentines, as a model of the most perfect love, serves just as well as a patron for earthly love. The saints are not exclusive that way. St. Raphael, the matchmaking patron, won't mind a bit, to be sure,  if we speak to St. Valentine today ~ to pray for loved ones, to love our loved ones better, or to seek a match if we haven't got one already. And, there is no question that St. Valentine (any one or all of three!) will do what he can for us!

Prayer to St Valentine

O glorious advocate and protector,

St Valentine,

look with pity upon our wants,

hear our requests,

attend to our prayers,

relieve by your intercession the miseries

under which we labour,

and obtain for us the divine blessing,

that we may be found worthy to join you

in praising the Almighty for all

eternity: through the merits of

Our Lord Jesus Christ.
 Amen

* Lazy Blogger's repost -- all the way back from 2009

*  And then there's this beautiful quote from Fulton J. Sheen, perfect for the day:

                                                   Why is the human heart shaped as it is? 

The human heart is not shaped like a valentine heart, perfect and regular in contour; it is slightly irregular in shape as if a small piece of it were missing out of its side. That missing part may very well symbolize a piece that a spear tore out of the Universal Heart of Humanity on the Cross, but it probably symbolizes something more. It may very well mean that when God created each human heart, He kept a small sample of it in heaven, and sent the rest of it into the world of time, where it would each day learn the lesson that it could never be really happy, that it could never be really wholly in love, that it could never be really whole-hearted until it rested with the Risen Christ in an eternal Easter, until it went back to the Timeless to recover the sample which God had kept for it from all eternity.

-- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Happy Feast of St. Valentine!