Valentine's Day: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2019}}

J.C. Cooper, in ''The Dictionary of Christianity'', writes that Saint Valentine was "a priest of Rome who was imprisoned for succouring persecuted Christians."<ref name="JC Cooper 2013">J.C. Cooper, ''Dictionary of Christianity'', 2013, Routledge.</ref> Contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most probably destroyed during this [[Diocletianic Persecution]] in the early 4th century.<ref name="oruch"/> In the 5th or 6th century, a work called ''Passio Marii et Marthae'' published a story of martyrdom for Saint Valentine of Rome, perhaps by borrowing tortures that happened to other saints, as was usual in the literature of that period. The same events are also found in ''[[Bede|Bede's Martyrology]]'', which was compiled in the 8th century.<ref name="oruch"/><ref name="ansgar49">Ansgar, 1986, pp. 49–50</ref> It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by [[Roman Emperor]] [[Claudius Gothicus|Claudius II]] in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman [[paganism]] in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. The jailer's daughter and his forty-six member [[household]] (family members and servants) came to believe in [[Jesus]] and were [[baptized]].<ref name="Brewer1894">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=blUXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA384|title=A Dictionary of Miracles: Imitative, Realistic, and Dogmatic|last=Brewer|first=Ebenezer Cobham|publisher=[[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]]|year=1894|page=384|language=en|quote=St. Valentine, laying his hand upon her eyes, said in prayer, "O Thou who art the true Light, give light to this Thy servant." Instantly sight was restored to the blind child. Asterius and his wife, falling at the feet of Valentine, prayed that they might be admitted into the Christian fellowship; whereupon St. Valentine commanded them to break their idols, to fast for three days, to forgive their enemies, and to be baptized. Asterius and his wife did all the saint told them to do, and Valentine baptized them and all their household, to the number of forty-six in all. —''Les Petits Bollandistes'', vol. ii. pp. 510, 511.}}</ref><ref name="oruch"/>