![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Valentino.jpg\" "\\"Valentino\\"")
<\/a>Saint Valentinus of Terni<\/p><\/div> Mind you, he’s still in the Martyrology<\/em>, so he’s not been “un-sainted” as some seem to think.<\/p>\n And of course, at this morning’s Lauds from my monastic breviary, the memorial remains.<\/p>\n Why was Valentine removed from the general calendar? This was done mostly because it’s difficult to tease apart the stories of several early martyrs who shared this name. <\/p>\n Over time, their stories and their identities accreted one to another like the formation of some new planet. There were, in fact, at least 14 <\/em>saints named Valentine or Valentinus<\/a>.<\/p>\n Very little is known of the “original” martyr whose feast was fixed at 14 February by Pope Gelasius I in 496. Even in the original decree creating the feast, the Pope declared that he was a martyr “whose acts are known only to God”.<\/p>\n The very earliest accounts seem to conflate two men buried near Rome, one a Roman priest and the other the Bishop of Terni.<\/p>\n The tradition of Valentine as the patron saint of lovers seems to come from Chaucer in his poem “Parliament of Fowls<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Saints Cyril and Methodius<\/p><\/div>No, these days, today is the Memorial of Saints Cyril and Methodius<\/a>, two brothers who preached the Gospel in eastern Europe to the Slavs in the ninth century.<\/p>\n They even invented an alphabet <\/a>for the Slavic languages so they could distribute their Slavonic translation of the Bible.<\/p>\n When Francine and I were in Rome<\/a>, we visited the remains of Cyril in the Basilica di San Clemente<\/a>. There was an amazing icon of the two brothers there, hanging out in the basement for no apparent reason. <\/p>\n It was one of those surprises you get in Rome on a fairly regular basis. You’re in a dingy alley or basement somewhere, you turn a corner, and bam! Out of nowhere, sublime beauty staring you in the face.<\/p>\n I suppose that’s as good a metaphor for love as I’m likely to have on this Valentine’s day morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The feast of Saint Valentine was removed from the Roman calendar during the reforms of 1969. It seems a shame, since this is one of a vanishingly small number of saint’s feasts that have remained in the secular culture. It seems to me that it could be used as a touchstone for the new evangelization. Mind you, he’s still in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[46,8,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual","category-francine-my-love","category-saint"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Valentino.jpg?fit=192%2C287&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-mWe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":86802,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/the-saints-valentine-and-cyril-and-methodius\/","url_meta":{"origin":88178,"position":0},"title":"The Saints Valentine – and Cyril and Methodius","author":"Thom","date":"14 February 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The feast of Saint Valentine was removed from the Roman calendar during the reforms of 1969. 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\nT<\/span>he feast of Saint Valentine was removed from the Roman calendar during the reforms of 1969. It seems a shame, since this is one of a vanishingly small number of saint’s feasts that have remained in the secular culture. It seems to me that it could be used as a touchstone for the new evangelization.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>