http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/02-Love-Is-The-Way-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>
\nLove is the Way featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by Bob Ross<\/p>\nAs tomorrow is St Valentine\u2019s Day I thought I would do a bit of research and discovered from \u201cHistory.com\u201d that: <\/p>\n
The history of Valentine\u2019s Day\u2013and the story of its patron saint is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance and that St. Valentine\u2019s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?
\nThe Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine\u2019s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.
\nOther stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first \u201cvalentine\u201d greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl\u2013possibly his jailor\u2019s daughter\u2013who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed \u201cFrom your Valentine,\u201d an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and\u2013most importantly\u2013romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.
\nWhile some believe that Valentine\u2019s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine\u2019s death or burial\u2013which probably occurred around A.D. 270\u2013others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine\u2019s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to \u201cChristianize\u201d the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
\nAs well as being the patron saint of lovers St Valentine is also the patron saint of beekeepers and epilepsy,
\nChaucer may have invented Valentine\u2019s Day. The medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts that he represented as real. No record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine\u2019s Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375. In his work \u201cParliament of Foules,\u201d he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine\u2019s feast day\u2013an association that didn\u2019t exist until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. When Chaucer wrote, \u201cFor this was sent on Seynt Valentyne\u2019s day \/ Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate,\u201d he may have invented the holiday we know today.
\nQuote of the week
\nA new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another
\nJesus of Nazareth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Love is the Way featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Love is the Way recorded and produced by Bob Ross As tomorrow is St Valentine\u2019s Day I thought I would do a bit of research and discovered from \u201cHistory.com\u201d that: The history of Valentine\u2019s Day\u2013and the story of its patron saint is shrouded in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2002,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions\/2002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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