During his reign, Claudius made it illegal for young men to marry. He believed single men made better soldiers (not unlike our church's view on priesthood). Despite the Emperor's decree, Valentinus secretly married young couples. He was arrested. During his last weeks in jail, the jailer asked Valentinus if he would teach his daughter, Julia, who had been blind since birth. Valentinus agreed and in the process healed Julia of her blindness. Some say that he also fell in love with Julia. Because he would not renounce his faith, Valentinus was clubbed to death and beheaded. On the eve of his death, Valentinus wrote a last note to Julia telling her to always stay close to God. He signed it "From your Valentine".

Valentinus was killed February 270 A.D. It is said, that Julia planted a pink blossomed almond tree near his grave. On February 14th, St. Valentine's Day, messages of affection are exchanged around the world.

A Meditation for Valentine's Day

Sr. Melannie Svoboda, SND, wrote the following meditation for Valentine's Day.

Whenever I think of Valentine's Day, I think of God. Even though, liturgically speaking, the feast is not significant, I know that it belongs to God in a special way. For Valentine's Day is for lovers, and God is the greatest lover of them all.

And being so, he has all the symptoms of someone in love: He is blind, he does foolish things, and he is susceptible to hurt.

Like all lovers, God is blind. How else can we explain the fact that mankind (and womankind) has endured for all these thousands of years despite pettiness, lying, cheating, fighting, killing, and all the other evils too numerous and too depressing to mention? Certainly God must be blind-or at least he must be seeing things with different eyes. Yes, that's probably more accurate... God the lover sees things and people and events with eyes different from our own.

For example, where we see only a little singing shepherd boy, God sees a mighty king of Israel and a man after his own heart. Where we see a blustering big fisherman, God sees a strong leader capable of dying out of love. Where we see only death, God sees birth into a new life. And on and on the examples could go. God may be blind, all right. But we are shortsighted-which is often worse than being blind.

Lovers do foolish things. And it was God who began all foolishness in the first place when he created us and then did a really foolish thing-he gave us free will. This free will business has always bothered me because I saw it as opening the door to almost unimaginable kinds of evil. In my short-sightedness, I had forgotten that it is free will alone that makes all love possible.

Lovers get hurt, badly, sometimes irreparably. They confess their love to their beloved and are met with scorn or laughter or (worst of all) indifference. God is a lot like that. He sent his Son among us as a declaration of his great love, and we nailed him to a cross.

But lovers have another quality: They are persistent. And certainly God is that. He keeps professing his love for us through all the large and small gifts he sends into our lives - like sunsets and daisies and puppies and friends and goodness. But sometimes (in our shortsightedness) we tend to pay more attention to these mere signs of his love and we forget all about him.

I heard a priest put it this way once, in a charming parable. He said: "God is like a lover who gives us a big box of chocolates; and we love chocolate very, very much. We say a quick 'Thanks" and we begin to devour the candy, thinking how good it tastes and how happy it makes us. What we don't realize is that God has put his telephone number at the bottom of the box, underneath all the candy, because his real gift is NOT the candy-it is the fact that he wants to establish a relationship with us. But we are so caught up with the candy that, when we finally finish eating it, we throw away the box (with the telephone number) and sit and hope for more candy."

Valentine's Day, then, should be a reminder for us of our greatest lover, God. And that the greatest valentine he wants to give to us is not a paper heart or a box of chocolates. It is himself.