Tuesday 14 February is SAINT Valentine's Day

 

Shrine of St Valentine

Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Whitefriar St, Dublin [Source]

This post includes material I used on 12 February 2009.

The core of the stories about St Valentine is that this young Roman priest, who was what we would now call a diocesan priest, was martyred for officiating at weddings when Emperor Claudius II, ‘the Cruel’, forbade them because he was engaged in so many wars and needed the young men to fight in them.

In the Philippines (where I was at the time) St Valentine’s Day is almost always referred to as ‘Valentine’s Day’. Indeed the ‘St’ is left out in most English-speaking countries. For many young people it is simply a day to express innocent friendship. For many married couples it is a day for renewing their love for one another. But for many unmarried young adults it is, quite frankly, a day for fornicating. This would be the case in many other countries, as would adultery.

Marriage is more and more under attack in the West. I can think of no better patron saint for priests and married couples involved in strengthening marriage than St Valentine.

And I also think that the Church should put more emphasis on marriage than on the family, since the sacrament of matrimony is the foundation of the family and the vocation to be a spouse is more fundamental than the vocation to be a parent. In God’s plan, parenthood is meant to be a consequence of the two, husband and wife, becoming one.

Above is in the shrine of St Valentine in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, known to everyone in my native city, Dublin,  as Whitefriar Street Church. It belongs to the Carmelite Friars (OCarm). 

The website of the friars contains a number of photos of the shrine along with a history of how the relics of St Valentine came to be there. It also includes this beautiful prayer.

Prayer to St Valentine

Saint Valentine,
true servant who shed his blood
in defence of the sacraments and faith in Jesus Christ,
intercede for us today, we pray.

Gain for us the strength to be steadfast like you
in witnessing to the true faith to the end of our days,
and help us never to lose hope in the Lord
who is always near us.

Intercede for those men and women who are preparing for marriage:
help them to know one another and the true meaning
of the sacramental bond they are preparing to enter.

Intercede for those who are joined together
in the sacrament of marriage,
that they may never give up when trials come their way
but may remain faithful to each other,
and to the Lord who blessed their union.

May your love for the Lord be an inspiration for
our love for each other, for the love between husband and wife,
and for the love and charity we extend to all whom we meet.
Amen.

Though the feast of St Valentine is no longer on the general calendar of the Church that came into effect late in 1969 when the 'New Mass' was introduced by Pope St Paul VI, it is still on the calendar where the Traditional Latin Mass is celebrated, using the Roman Missal of 1962 approved by Pope St John XXIII.

There are many churches named after St Valentine, particularly in the Region of Trentino-South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige in Italian). Below is that in Malé in that region.

Church of San Valentino, Malé, Italy

[Wikipedia; photo]

May I wish everyone a Happy 

SAINT Valentine's Day!