Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1920-02-06
Three "ST. Walls"
Church Dedicated to One of Them
Was Long a Lovers
Trysting Place.
~N SPRING the young mans fancy
n lightly turns to thoughts of love.
sang TennvsOn. who knew so well


lightly turns to thoughts of love,
sang Tennyson, who knew SO well
the tradition of sweet sentiment,
which chastened the currents OF Eng
Iish 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-
lection st. Valentines day had given
forecast of vernal joys to be.
In Christian times, good old st.
Valentine is pleasant substitute Tor
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 APP
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, suspicious day
on February Ia. the other makes his
frigid advent in the midst of winter.
IF all the world loves a lover, that
same world loves st. Valentine. 1t
was he, in the days of old, who re-
fined the art of love by changing pa
gan custom into a Christian tradition.
Venerable old Alban Butler, in his
! great work, 1.-THE Lives of the Saints"
says:
"To abolish the heathen's lewd 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 ii was the day upon which
good Bishop Valentine gave his life as
q 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
Ollie church, says the Catholic Encyclo-
pedia. under date of February IA. One
is described as a priest of Rome, an
| other Interamna 1.-THE modern Tern),
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
ferent 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
t Porta del Populo, was called the Gate
of st. Valentine. The name was taken
from a small church in that street.
The favored neighoorhood was for
centuries a fasorite trysting place for
lovers, and a spot vsh, pictures and
love letters oftenAuell Wachanged OF
both these ST. Vale acts or rec
ords ara preserved. bnde,hey are of
relativel7Aiate date, ano of no great
Historical value-which is no hindrance
fo the devotion of lovers, whose fealty
lis not always found on the rock of
history or the solid tradition of abso-
lutte facts. Of the third st. Valentine,
Ihvho suffered martyrdom In Africa with
Al number of companions. nothing fur
A,her is known.
u The popular customs connected with
valentines day ~dSubtedly have
A61h;-is.in ths JooIdntional belief
houo B-.ngland and
So - ages that