Love endures all things . . and never fails. St. Valentine’s Day is February 14.

St. Valentine’s Day is February 14th.

Do you know the story behind this holiday?

St. Valentine of Rome, a martyr, was a priest, or possibly bishop, in 3rd century Rome. Little is known about St. Valentine, but he is believed to have been a physician, imprisoned for giving aid to jailed martyrs, and while there, converting the jailer to Christianity by restoring sight to the jailer’s daughter. He was beaten and beheaded around the year 269 A.D. and initially buried on the Flaminian Way. Some sources list St. Valentine of Rome and St. Valentine of Terni as separate men, but most scholars believe them to have been the same person.

The romantic nature of February 14th seems to have been attached to the date long after it was recognized as the feast day of St. Valentine. It was a popular belief in the middle ages that birds would choose their mates half-way through the second month of the year – the 14th of February – and that day was seen as consecrated to lovers. French and English literature of the 14th and 15th century alludes to the practice of sending love letters and tokens on St. Valentines day as well as people addressing the one they loved as ‘Valentine.’

- excerpted from the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia and Catholic Forum’s Patron Saint Index

Love Alone Is Credible Author: Hans Urs Von Balthasar	The God Who Loves You Love Divine, All Loves Excelling Author: Peter Kreeft
The Way of Love: Reflections on Pope Benedict XVI’s Encylical Deus Caritas Est Author: The John Paul II Institute	God Is Love: Deus Caritas Est Author: Pope Benedict XVI
The Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism Author: Augustine DiNoia O.P.	Treatise on the Love of God Author: St. Francis de Sales
Covenant of Love Author: Pope John Paul II	Faith, Hope and Love CD: Three Keys to Living a Holy Life Author: Angela Burrin
The First Valentine DVD A Modern Teenager Meets A Legendary Saint . . . and Learns a Lesson in Love	First Comes Love DVD Presenter: Dr. Scott Hahn

Catholic jewelry is always a wonderful - and certainly a classic - gift idea for your loved ones for St. Valentine’s Day.

To browse our huge selection of necklaces, medals, pins, bracelets, unique items from theVatican Library Collection and much more in our jewelery category, please click here.

To browse the complete selection of items in our St. Valentine’s Day Specialty Store, please click here.

To browse our complete selection of beautiful Catholic art, please click here.

“God who created man out of love also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love. Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator’s eyes. And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: “And God blessed them, and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.”

Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” The woman, “flesh of his flesh,” his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a “helpmate”; she thus represents God from whom comes our help. “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been “in the beginning”: “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.”

- from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1604, 1605

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“Love”

“Love is patient, love is kind.

It is not jealous, is not pompous,

it is not inflated, it is not rude,

it does not seek its own interests,

it is not quick-tempered,

it does not brood over injury,

it does not rejoice over wrongdoing

but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love never fails.”

- St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 13:4

A Simple Prayer to Saint Valentine

Dear Saint and glorious martyr, teach us to love unselfishly and to find great joy in giving. Enable all true lovers to bring out the best in each other. Let them love each other in God and in God each other. Amen.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Aquinas and More Catholic Goods Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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