The Benson signal., 1920-02-07

- N SPRING the young mans Iancy
lightly turns to thoughts of love.
sang Tennyson, who knew so we'll
the tradition of sweet sentiment,
which chastered the currents of Eng
lish literature. But even before the
pungent zephyrs of the flowery spring
time began to watt to the souls of the
young the exhilarating emotion of af-
fection ST. Valentines day had given
a forecast Of vernal joys to be.
In Christian times, good old st.
Valentine is a pleasant substitute for
the pagan Cupid, whose darts, after
many centuries of use (and he was al
ways an efficient marksman) must
now be blunt these many years. In
the traditions of sentiment. st. valen-
tine, who resembles st. Patrick in ap-
pearance. long, flowing episcopal vest
ments. equally long, flowing white
beard. golden crozier and all. is almost
as we'll known and beloved as Santa
Claus. 1t is true, the former is rather
the friend and patron Of the young
folk over sixteen. while the latter is
the delight Of the little children.
The one brings the delights Of love,
the other fills up the baby'S stocking.
The one has his benign, auspicious day
on February IA, the other makes his
frigid advent in the midst of winter.
If ali the world loves lover, that
same world loves st. Valentine. 1t
was he, in the days OF old. who re-
fined the art Of love by changing a pa
gan custom into a Christian tradition.
Venerable old Alban Butler. in his
great work, 'The Lives of the Saints"
says:
ITO abolish the fleathen's iewd Gus
tom Of superstition of Roman boys
drawing the names of girls in honor
of the pagan goddess, Februata Juno,
on the 14th of February, several zeal
Gus pastors substituted the names of
saints in billets given on this day"
February Il was the day upon which
good Bishop Valentine gave his life as
a martyr for the faith Of Christ.
At least three different st. Valen-
tines (and good things come in threes).
all of them martyrs. are mentioned in
all the early martyrOlogies of the Cath
olic church, says the Catholic Encyclo-
pedia, under date of February IA. One
is described as priest Of Rome, an
other Interamna (the modern Terni),
and these two seem both to have suf-
fered in the second half of the third
century, and to have been buried on
the Flaminian Way, Rome, but at diff
fererft distances from the city. In
William of Malmesbury's time, what
was known to the ancients as the Fla
minian gate Of Rome. and is now the
Porta del POpulc, was called the Gate
of St. Valentine. The name was taken
from a small church in that street.
The favored neighborhoOd was for
centuries a favorite trysting place for
lovers, and spot where pictures and
love letters often were exchanged. Of
both these ST. Valentines acts or rec
Ords are preserved but they are of
relatively late date, and of no great
historical value-which is no hindrance
to the devotion of lovers. whose fealty
is not always fOunQ on the rock or
history or the solid tradition Of abso-
lutte facts. Of the third st. Valentine,
who suffered martyrdom in Africa with
number of companions. nothing fur
ther is known.
The popular customs connected with
st. Valentines day undoubtedly have
their origin in the conventional belief
generally received IN England and
France during the middle ages that
On February IA ii. e., halfway through
The second month of the year). the
birds begin to pair. which happens to
be about the time that the young mans
fancy and the young girls fancy, too,
for all that, swiftly turns to thoughts
of love.