Bishop Valentine And Valentine’s Day

When I was a pastor in New Mexico, the Valentines attended our church. We love them, but Valentine’s Day wasn’t named after them. So, what’s the story?

After a brief lookup, I find “valentine” originated from valens, which became valentia, which intones strong, stout, vigorous, powerful.

But what’s THAT got to do with Valentine’s Day? We also discovered a young man, a pastor named Valentinus.

Pastor Valentinus manifested a twofold character quality: An undying, obedient, irrevocable love for God and a deep, loyal commitment to people. That’s more than two character qualities, but let’s keep going. Carol and I have applied those qualities in our marriage and our love grows stronger every year.

Unconditional Love: Growing toward God and growing closer together certainly defines Pastor Valentine’s multi-faceted love.

Back to Valentine’s Day. In 269 AD, Emperor Claudius II issued an order that forbade young men from marrying because he believed married men, who did not want to leave their families to go to battle, made poor soldiers. Valentinus, the young bishop of Interamna, Italy (about 50 miles south of Rome), disagreed with the emperor and invited young couples to be secretly married.

When Emperor Claudius discovered this treason, he was incensed. He had Valentinus arrested and brought before him. When Valentinus, who came to be known as Bishop Valentine, refused to change his views on marriage — and also refused to renounce Christianity — he was imprisoned to await execution.

Valentine didn’t flinch on either count even in the face of death, and that quality of love and devotion is the hallmark of one who dynamically lives in the Kingdom of God.

Tradition tells us that while Valentine was in prison, he corresponded with those in his parish by sending them letters and notes of inspiration. Also, the couples whom he married, and their children, would come by and throw notes of encouragement and love to him. Perhaps we could call these the first “Valentine Cards.”

Bishop Valentine was executed and in the year 496 AD, Pope Gelasius confirmed him a saint, and declared Feb. 14 to be Saint Valentine’s Day. And we refer to the day simply as Valentine’s Day.

I remember as a kid in southern California, our elementary school teachers always told us to give Valentine cards, either homemade or store-bought, to each kid in class. I didn’t understand the necessity of the activity and didn’t want to cooperate but we were ordered to do it. So Mom helped me buy the cheapest bag of cards we could find. Even giving them out was depressing because I didn’t mean any of it, so I merely tolerated the celebration.

I did have one love in my young life, and I saw her every day in fifth grade. She was my teacher, Mrs. Wells. I DID give her a meaningful Valentine card, and she told me she would keep it. Perhaps.

However, in late August of 1964, I met someone who presented an entirely new meaning to the celebration. Her name was Carol Ann Winton. We married in August of 1966, and she has been Carol Ann Linzey for over 55 years now. Although I had been a Christian since I was five years old, and had never turned my back on God, I didn’t know much about love. But when I committed to Carol and never turned my back on her, I learned a lot about love and Valentine’s Day.

What did Valentine mean? Valens, valentia — strong, stout, vigorous, powerful.

As with probably every other married couple, we’ve had problems we had to work through, but we learned how to handle them within the boundaries of God’s love. We incorporated His love into our marriage, and our love became strong, stout, vigorous and powerful. Even in disagreements, we learned to hold down negative emotions, use what wisdom we gained in life and keep in mind that we love each other.

God’s love is primarily a decision and is followed by emotions. We tagged on to that, and I never let a day go by without telling her at LEAST once that I love her. Also, every time I leave the house, I remind her that I love her.

John 3:16 starts with, “For God so loved the world, that He gave.” Learn to love and give of yourself, and let God’s love flow through you and bless others. And remember that loving your spouse is a major way of loving and honoring God.

Happy Valentine’s Day.