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.) 
cool picture . made my day. would be great for a valentines day card.
Wouldn’t it, though, Frank! Furthermore, I say we should replace the red heart as the Valentine’s Day symbol with the severed head. Or a skull with a little ribbon around it, as is depicted here.
(Isn’t that the perfect detail in the way these relics are displayed? Grisliness set off with a sentimental ribbon.)
That would be an even better card than the Al Capone cards I made for V-D a few years back. :^)
Sadly, only one person got the joke. Sigh.
Well said, Frank.
Perhaps it does not need to be re-claimed, but only claimed. Efforts to teach the history of the Lord’s blessed endurance given to those who trust Him are probably the best answer.
Moreover, even emphasizing Valentine’s refusal to deny Christ is not the real point of the day, but rather, the love of God that ruled over his heart so that denial of Christ was not even possible. Otherwise, the day points to reliance upon our faithfulness rather than upon God’s faithfulness.
For what it is worth, I utilized the day at my blog (Not Alone) with an emphasis on the miracle that God works in marriage, especially when marriage is a union in Him.
I am inclined not to think of days as needing to be reclaimed, but simply acknowledged for what they are, days that Christ has reclaimed for His saints. Isn’t this really what we are called out of the world to enjoy and to testify, with words and with our lives (vocations)?
How about an evening serivce (think lent and advent) of confession and absolution followed by a prayer of thanksgiving for Christ’s love, which in turn enables us to love others.
Myself, I’ll start to work on taking back St. Valentine’s day as soon as I get through taking back the word evangelical.
The thing I love most about the martyrs is that they laugh at those who kill them. They know that they can’t die. Jesus has said as much, “He lives and believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.”
Death? Is that the best these persecutors can do.
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[...] From the Cranach blog… 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. Read on… [...]
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Gene Edward Veith is the Provost and Professor of Literature at Patrick Henry College, the Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary, a columnist for World Magazine and TableTalk, and the author of 18 books on different facets of Christianity & Culture.
Lucas Cranach, self portrait c.1530.
About Lucas Cranach
Lucas Cranach was the great artist of the Reformation. He was a close friend of Martin Luther. He was a businessman, who first printed Luther's translation of the Bible; a politician, who served on the Wittenberg town council and served the city as its mayor; a chemist, who operated a pharmacy; a teacher, who trained a host of apprentice artists; a family-man, who helped arrange Luther's marriage with the two men serving as the godfathers of each other's children; and an active layman in his church, who gave his pastors important personal and material support. As a Christian who lived out his faith in his many different callings, Cranach thus embodies the Reformation doctrine of vocation, using the gifts God had given him in service to Christ and his neighbor in the church, the family, the workplace, and the culture. In the spirit of Lucas Cranach, this blog will discuss wide-ranging issues of Christianity and culture with a Lutheran twist.
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