Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-02-15
History Makes Us Admire the
Wisdom of the Early
Fathers.
Customs Observed i'm Honor of
st. Valentine Through
the Age.
WISDOM OF THE EARLY FATHERS

What would the world do without
the Roman calendar of saints-the
members of it are so eminently a
respectable body by which to name
some fashionable avenue to hold a
young peoples frolic? They are
never brought into requisition as
emissaries whose stainless hands are
worthy to present our petitions be-
fore the great White Throne, but to
further levity by contrast with their
gravity of saint-like demeanor is
considered quite effective by the So
called smart world.
St. Valentine, Bishop and martyr,
says the Buffalo Union and Times, is
made to serve as the patron of a
custom as far removed from the
tenor of his penitential, ascetic life
as is the east from the west. Yet the
story of the connecting link between
the exchange of Valentine favors and
the sanity Roman Bishop reveals a
chapter in church history which
makes us admire still more the wis
dom of the early fathers. They were
such wise directors and custodians of
the infant church when it was strug-
Cling to free itself from the swad-
ding clothes of paganism.
st. Valentines date of martyrdom
is February Is in the year 270. He
was so much revered that a gate in
Rome now called the Porta Popolo
was named after him, Porta Valen-
tint. AS late as 200 years afterward
the Roman youths and maidens still
persisted in following the ancient
pagan custom of celebrating the
festal of Pan and Juno by dropping
into an urn the names of their young
men and women friends and then
drawing by lot. In consequence,
orgies followed which were opposed
to Christian modesty and sobriety.
To guide a popular custom into a
right channel the Bishop of Rome
transferred the feast of st. Valentine
to February IA, and instead of al
lowing the young people to drop into
| the urn the names of very venal
men and women, as in former times,
they were Obliged to substitute the
names of saints. And the saint whose
name was drawn became the re-
cipient's "dear St. Valentine" whose
life he. or she should initiate
throughout the year.
In the sixteenth century the young
people of France began to relapse
into the custom practiced before
Christian ethics gave a turn to it
through the hands of the Bishop of
Rome. To offset this st. Francis de
Sales revived the drawing of saints
rsmes and the courtly saint did
much to discourage the debasing OF
human affection by copying indel-
licate heathenish practices.
All these precautions have tended
toward the development of healthy,
wholesome st. Valentines day, when
even our little folks exchange loving
greetings with their parents. In
England, long ago, there was a
merry practice of rising before dawn
that cones valentine might not be
Isunburnt," and greeting everyone
with the words, Good morrow, tits
st. Valentines day." The first ac-
costed was obliged to pay forfeit
An old custom is the writing OF
isonnets on st. Valentines day. Away
back in 1140, Lydgate, the Monk OF
Bury, wrote one in honor OF Henry
of England and his consort, Queen
lCatharine of Arragon. No doubt II
was the last the bluebeard sovereign
ever received.
Popularity has been the saving
grace of our present Valentine Gus
tom. The exchange of greetings or
this day is now conducted on such
wholesale scale that there is safety
in numbers, while the making OF the
dainty trifles has provided work Tor
thousands Of skillful hands, and the
writing of appropriate verse has
given many a silent poet an outlet