| Love from Paris. The story of St. Valentine’s day started in the third century after Christ (ie 200 and something) right here, under the reign of Claudius II, aka Claude the cruel. At the time it was against the law for soldiers to get married. This just seemed logical to the Romans, because it was presumed that legionnaires would be tempted to avoid battle if they could stay home with their wives. So obviously – no wives. Remember these same Romans enjoyed the performances of gladiators and lions in their arenas, and they had hot bath houses even up here in Paris. They enjoyed many of the niceties of civilization, but they definitely prioritized making war over making love. Yet at the time there lived one Bishop who performed marriage ceremonies for soldiers anyway, against the will of the emperor. Valentine secretly married any fighters who asked before he went off to war. |
| As soon as the emperor, Cruel Claude, found out about these secret unions he had the law-breaking Bishop Valentine imprisoned to await his execution. Death penalty was standard back then. But so far this is not a special story – I’m sure similar things happened to many men who were never canonized. It was from his prison cell that Valentine became a saint. He met the daughter of his executioner, a young blind woman with whom he fell in love. Somehow, he gave her back her vision from jail, presumably she fell in love with him ‘at first sight’. That is how he accomplished his requisite miracle (in order to achieve sainthood, you have to perform at least one documented miracle). |
| But the legend gets juicier: just before being executed Bishop Valentine reportedly wrote a letter to his beloved explaining his undying devotion. He signed it from ‘your Valentine’ – which is the origin of the expression we still use today. “Be my valentine”. It wasn’t until well after the fall of the Roman Empire, that Valentine was officially canonized – in the sixth century AD – he became a saint in honor of his sacrifices for love. He quickly became known as the patron saint of lovers and Feb 14th (the day he was executed) became St Valentine’s day. |
| It should be noted for all you protestants out there, that every day of the year is dedicated to a different saint (or several) as part of the tradition of the Catholic church. Here in France New Year’s Eve is known as “Le St. Sylvestre” for example, but that is another story. They publish the best stories about each of these old saints on their saint days, in the free newspapers that are handed out on the metro. But these are often brutal legends. St Nicholas, for example, is said to have reconstructed two kids after they had been cut up by a butcher and served to Bishop Nicholas for dinner one evening – thus he became the patron saint of children. It has been only quite recently that the French have caught onto the commercial possibilities of St Valentine’s day: It seems this particularly romantic holiday jumped from the Romans straight through to the Anglo Saxons. Reportedly the Romans had a fertility festival in February that wise emperor Constantine attached to Christianity. Then the Victorian English picked up on love letters from cards….now we have this mid-winter love fest to depress everyone who is not in a romantic relationship, while shaming couples into spending money on each other. I remember when I was an au pair helping a rich French family here in Paris back in 1982 – I received a valentine’s day card from my then boyfriend (from back in Canada); my hosts laughed at the stupidity of the tradition. “Who wants to send cards around the world like that? If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” The 19th century Victorian English ‘melords’ figured out the need for romantic cards well before the original saint’s fellow Parisians figured out the capitalist potential of this ‘hallmark holiday’ for the patron saint of lovers. As my sister has always said: “romance is the booby prize the patriarchy offers women in exchange for our unequal status”. If you can pretend that women are up on a pedestal you can continue to exploit them. I’m sure St Valentine would understand. |
The View from a Broad 