"Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate..." -- Chaucer

"... on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read:

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice." [taken from the Catholic Dictionary online]

Yes... I woke my wife with coffee, a valentines day gift and a homemade card from the kids. Like most of you, I too find something nastalgic and gushy on these "holidays". But inspite of our (commercially programmed?) sentimentality about Valentines Day there is some real significance to remembering this 14th day of February... Some evidence of real love - a love measured in lives martyred.

Saint Valentine's Day

At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city. In William of Malmesbury's time what was known to the ancients as the Flaminian Gate of Rome and is now the Porta del Popolo, was called the Gate of St. Valentine. The name seems to have been taken from a small church dedicated to the saint which was in the immediate neighborhood. Of both these St. Valentines some sort of Acta are preserved but they are of relatively late date and of no historical value. Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing further is known.

But before we get too serious, the Mathews want to wish YOU a Happy Valentines Day!

Justin & Jodi