receive an hundredfold in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting." They say, who know the life divine, Which for our Lord's redeemed is set, All gemmed with pure and living light, Christian Year, p. 124. FEBRUARY 14. S. Valentine, Bishop and Martyr. 270. S. VALENTINE was a priest of the Roman Church; and was put in chains by the Emperor Claudius II., for his religion. Calpurnius, the prefect of the city, who had charge of him, entrusted him to the care of Asterius, his chief officer. Valentine used his opportunity, and preached the faith to his guard, and restored her sight to his adopted daughter. Asterius was converted and baptized, with his whole family, and confirmed by a bishop named Callistus. Claudius hearing this, condemned S. Valentine to be beaten with clubs and afterwards beheaded. He suffered on the Flaminian way, on the 14th of February, 270. "In the glorious agony of this blessed martyr," says the author under the name of S. Augustin, "two we may imitate it. things are chiefly to be considered by us; the hardened cruelty of the torturer, and the invincible patience of the martyr. The cruelty of the torturer, that we may hate it; the patience of the martyr, that Hear the Psalmist inveighing against the malice of the ungodly: 'Be not envious of the wicked; for like stubble they are quickly dried up.' But that patience must be shown to sinners, hear the apostle persuading us : 'Patience is needful for you, that ye may receive the promises.' 999 Julius Bishop of Rome, about eighty years afterwards, built a church on the place where S. Valentine had suffered: and about the middle of the seventh century, Theodorus built a church in his honour, near Ponte Mole. It was enlarged and beautified by succeeding pontiffs, but is now in ruins. The gate del popolo sometime also bore the name of the saint. His relics are said to be distributed in various places in Italy and the Low Countries, and at Melun in France. S. Valentine is sometimes confounded with a martyr of the same name and age, who was bishop of Terni, the Interamnæ of the Romans. Train Thou us, Lord, with Thee to die, That we from death may rise, Our steps on earth, our hearts on high, Our treasure in the skies, Where God Triune doth reign for ever nigh. Par. Brev. 280. The custom of writing love letters on S. Valentine's day is of remote antiquity. Various accounts are given of its origin. Some antiquarians trace it to the ancient Lupercalia, the feast of Pan and Juno Februata1, when the names of a number of young women were put into an urn and drawn by lot by the young men, each of whom devoted himself to the person whose name he had drawn while the feast lasted. And it is supposed, but perhaps not on very good authority, that in early times the Christian pastors attempted to give to this ceremony a religious character by using the names of certain saints, and by fixing the feast on S. Valentine's day. It is certain, that in the seventeenth century such a change was made in his diocese by S. Francis of Sales. 2 A reason frequently given by the poets is, that as at this season of the year the birds choose their mates, so young persons should do the same. But perhaps the most probable reason, and certainly the most interesting, is that it was customary in the middle ages, during the time of the carnival, which usually happened about S. Valentine's Day, for a great number of knights and ladies to assemble at the various courts of Europe; and feasts and tournaments were held for their amusement. And at those times each lady made choice of a knight, who devoted himself to her service for a whole year. One duty which he frequently had to perform was to address verses to her full of tenderness, which he wrote as a matter of course, without necessarily feeling all that he expressed. The earliest poetical valentines known to exist are those written by Charles duke of 1 See Fosbrooke's Encycl. Antiqu. ' Douce's illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. 252. G Orleans, father of King Charles XII. of France, which are preserved in the Royal Library in the British Museum. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, and remained a captive in England for twenty-five years. The following is a specimen of these letters, in old French : A ce jour de Saint Valentin A ce jour de Saint Valentin. : When the feast of S. Valentine happened to fall on the same day as Ash Wednesday, the knights and the ladies seem to have assembled in the afternoon, and to have devoted the morning to their religious duties. Saint Valentin quant vous venez En caresme au commencement, Saint Valentin dit, Veez me ça, Quand le jour des cendres, hola, Saint Valentin dit, Veez me ça, Et après disner à loysir Choysisse qui choisir vouldra; Saint Valentin dit, Veez me ça, Et apporte pers à choysir. A similar custom1 of choosing valentines occurs in many parts of France, among the young people, on the evening of the first Sunday in Lent. Madame Royale, daughter of King Henry IV. of France, built a palace at Turin, which she called the Valentin; and gave an annual entertainment in it, when the ladies chose their knights for the year by lot, except herself, who claimed the privilege of selecting her own. At every ball during the year each knight or Valentin presented his lady with a bouquet of flowers, and each lady or Valentine furnished the horse's trappings of her knight at all tournaments, and the prizes which he obtained became hers. There is a letter extant3, dated 1476, which seems to have been a real and not a feigned love-letter, in which the lady addresses her lover as her Valentine. But the whole history of this subject is obscure; and indeed the custom is fast descending into the oblivion which is the fate of more venerable and useful remains of antiquity. Nevertheless, as it recals the manners of a simpler and less pedantic age, it must ever be interesting, even though its continuance cannot now be defended, when the simplicity which was its safeguard, and of which it was the token, has disappeared. 1 Note in Duchet's edition of Rabelais, vol. i. 393. 2 Menage, Diction. Etymol.: voce Valentin. 3 Fenn's Paston Letters, vol. ii. 211. |