[CUADPUpdate] ExecutedToday.com - Valentines Day!

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

Greetings All,

I waited this year to post the annual Valentines 
Day greeting because I wanted to share with you 
how it was used by a funky new blog that I 
announced here a few months ago.  I called 
"ExecutedToday.com" a great time waster, and it 
is.  I've found it to be quite educational and 
often entertaining.  I hope you check it 
out.  Here's today's post.  Happy valentines day!

--abe

<http://www.executedtoday.com>ExecutedToday.com

<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ExecutedToday/~3/234798096/>270: St. Valentine

Posted: 14 Feb 2008 12:23 AM CST

(Every February 14, Abe Bonowitz at the 
U.S.-based <http://www.cuadp.org>Citizens United 
for Alternatives to the Death Penalty sends out 
<http://www.cuadp.org/valentine.html>this history 
of St. Valentine as a death penalty victim. 
Thanks to Abe for allowing us to republish it here.)


Lupercalia: A “Feverish” Festival

We may owe our observance of Valentine’s Day to 
the Roman celebration of 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia>Lupercalia, 
a festival of eroticism that honored Juno 
Februata, the goddess of “feverish” (febris) 
love. Annually, on the ides of February, love 
notes or “billets” would be drawn to partner men 
and women for feasting and sexual game playing.


 From Sinful to Saintly?

Early Christians, clearly a dour bunch, frowned 
on these lascivious goings-on. In an attempt to 
curb the erotic festivities, the Christian clergy 
encouraged celebrants to substitute the names of 
saints. Then, for the next twelve months, 
participants were to emulate the ideals 
represented by the particular saint they’d 
chosen. Not too surprisingly, this prudish 
version of Lupercalia proved unpopular, and died a quick death.


Easier to Do: Substitute Romance for Eroticism

But the early Christians were anything but 
quitters, so it was on to Plan B: modulate the 
overtly sexual nature of Lupercalia by turning 
this “feast of the flesh” into a “ritual for 
romance!” This time, the Church selected a single 
saint to do battle with the pagan goddess Juno ­ 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine>St. 
Valentine (Valentinus). And since Valentinus had 
been martyred on February 14, the Church could 
also preempt the annual celebration of 
Lupercalia. The only fly in the ointment was 
Valentinus himself: he was a chaste man, unschooled in the art of love.


Putting the Right “Spin” on St. Valentine

To make the chaste St. Valentine more appealing 
to lovers, the Church may have “embellished” his 
life story a little bit. Since it happened so 
long ago, records no longer exist. But even if it 
didn’t happen this way, it certainly makes for a better story 

[]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/279285.stm>Really?

According to one legend, Valentinus ignored an 
imperial decree that forbade all marriages and 
betrothals. Caught in the act, Valentinus was 
imprisoned and sentenced to death for secretly 
conducting several wedding ceremonies. While 
imprisoned, the future Saint cured a girl (the 
jailer’s daughter) of her blindness. The poor 
girl fell madly in love with Valentinus, but could not save him.

On the eve of his execution, Valentinus managed 
to slip a parting message to the girl. The note, 
of course, was signed “From your Valentine.”


Another version:

In Rome in C.E. 270, Valentine enraged the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius_II>emperor 
Claudius II,* who had issued an edict forbidding 
marriage. Claudius felt that married men made 
poor soldiers, because they would not want to 
leave their families for battle. The empire 
needed soldiers, so Claudius abolished marriage.

Valentine, bishop of Interamna, invited young 
couples to come to him in secret, where he joined 
them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius 
learned of this “friend of lovers,” and had the 
bishop brought to the palace. The emperor, 
impressed with the young priest’s dignity and 
conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman 
gods, to save him from certain execution. 
Valentine refused to renounce Christianity and 
boldly attempted to convert the emperor.

History also claims that while Valentine was in 
prison awaiting his fate, he fell in love with 
the blind daughter of the jailer, Asterius. 
Through his faith he miraculously restored her 
sight. He then signed a farewell message to her 
“From Your Valentine,” a phrase that would live long after its author.

Valentine was clubbed to death, then beheaded, on 
February 14 around 270 C.E. during a Christian 
persecution. In a way, it could be said he died 
for love and it may be for this that his feast 
day, named in 496 C.E. by Pope Gelasius, has become associated with romance.

Here’s 
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15254a.htm>an official Catholic version.

*********

sent by abe at cuadp.org