THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR

SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can now enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that have won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.

TOMORROW is Valentine’s Day – lots of cards, heart-shaped chocolates and who knows, maybe some kisses. How did it arise and what is the connection to the pandemic?

Life in third-century Rome was not great for the clergy. Priests were tolerated but if they overstepped the mark, drastic measures took place.

Valentinus was a bishop who incurred the wrath of Emperor Claudius II in 269. He preached about love and sacrifice and the beauty of romance but became too popular with the crowds.

At the same time he brought many into the faith, increasing the power of the church over the state.

Dangerous stuff for an insecure dictatorship. He came to the attention of the Roman secret police and was imprisoned.

There, he is said to have healed other prisoners and miraculously reversed blindness in the daughter of his warder. Just before he was executed on Valentine’s day 269, he sent a letter to her signed “from your Valentine”.

After his death he became the patron saint of romance, love, engagement and marriage.

Interestingly for today’s uncertain times he was also associated with the plague. This was probably a later addition in medieval Europe when the Black Death caused untold suffering right across the continent. He was seen by many as a healer not just of the body but of the spirit. This was in addition to his previous association with love and romance.

As we emerge from the crisis of Covid, we all need some icons of hope for our future and as a society there is a lot of healing to do.

Where better to start than with some inspirational figures from our past?