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An unknown saint? ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’ The saint whose commemoration falls on the 14th February must be the best-known, unknown saint. St. Valentine must surely be the most popular saint about whom nothing certain is known at all.
There was a church dedicated to St. Valentine just outside Rome, probably commemorating a Roman priest who was martyred there in the third century. There was apparently also a Bishop of Terni, some 50 miles north of Rome, whose bones were returned there after he was martyred in Rome. Legends are told about these two martyrs and it’s more than possible that they were one and the same person. But the truth is that nothing is known for certain about St. Valentine.
Yet St. Valentine’s Day is one of the most widely observed saints’ days, because of the tradition that it is the day when the birds begin to choose a mate! So, for more than a hundred years people have been sending each other Valentine’s cards and celebrating love on St. Valentine’s Day. Possibly the custom goes back to the Roman festival of Lupercalia, which apparently fell at this time. Chaucer and Shakespeare both wrote about the legend of the birds and poor Ophelia offered to be Hamlet’s Valentine.
But surely it’s good to set aside a day to celebrate human love and courtship. When someone falls in love they have to say and do things to prove clearly that they really love the one on whom they’ve set their hearts. And every kind of love has three aspects – choosing, wooing and proving – even God’s love for us.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, knowing that he would soon be crucified, some Greek people were brought to meet him. To them all he said, ‘The hour has come. When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.’ All people, not just Jews, but Greeks too, and barbarians and pagans (and even the British, who were then regarded as the worst sort of savage!). He was going to begin his ‘courtship’ of them all. Like every lover he would ‘choose’ them, woo them and prove his love for them.
Jesus gave his life to prove how much he loves each one of us. Jesus was lifted up on the cross to show clearly his all-embracing love for all mankind. God wooed and still woos us all with his love, and lovingly seeks a clear response of love for him. Eric Wallington |
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