On this day in 270 A.D., a priest named  Valentine refused to renounce his faith, despite strenuous efforts to dissuade him and many benefits promised to him if he would only deny Christ.  Valentine refused, so he was first beaten with clubs and then beheaded. 

I wonder if this is another holiday co-opted by the secularists that Christians could reclaim.  (Yes, there are connections to love and marriage in the saint’s tales, though they seem to apply to another martyr named Valentine who married Christian couples despite the Emperor forbidding that practice.  He was also honored on this day, simply because he shared the name of the other guy, though he had no connection as such with February 14, unlike the man who died on that day.)But how could we breathe Christian meaning into this observance?  Celebrate the refusal to back down, whether in faith or in keeping one’s marriage vows despite all pressure?  Celebrate the institution of marriage even though the prevailing culture, like the old Emperor, works against it?  Who are some other martyrs for love?  What would be some good customs that we should start? Anyway, to brighten your day, here is a picture of his relics in Rome, including what is said to be his actual skull that was removed from his body. (We don’t venerate these relics, but they make a wonderfully grisly reminder of what this day is really about.) 

I predict it will be  polyamory. That means committed sexual and quasi-familial relationships between three or more people. Think polygamy, only sometimes with more men than women, and throw in bisexuality. You can do the math.

The Anchoress gives us a remarkable Lenten meditation that explains the significance of circumcision in the Old Testament, relates it to virginity, and brings it all together with the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I have been hanging in there with “American Idol,” even though it has failed to grab me this season.  The announcers keep hyping, breathlessly, that “this is the best talent ever!” but I have seen nothing to make me think so.  In fact, now that the show has winnowed the herd to the top 24, I was struck by how many I hadn’t even seen before!  (I think I missed one audition show, so maybe they were all on that. But I also should have seen them on subsequent shows, hearing them try out on “Hollywood Week.”  Or maybe I did see them, but they left absolutely no impression.)  If this is the case, that some of the top contestants were edited out of the auditions, presumably because the producers didn’t think them interesting, that is a serious production fault.  (I wonder how far ahead these shows are taped.  You would think that if a contestant made it through another level of elimination, the producers could edit his or her performance into the previous week’s episode.)  Of the ones I’ve heard, the Aussie guy should be hard to beat.