St Valentine: A Pagan celebration renamed by the Catholic Church?

14 Feb 2012, 4:25 pm   -   Source: Chiara Pazzano, SBS
Share This
0 
+ Comment
7
A painting of St Valentine (Catholic Online)

A painting of St Valentine (Catholic Online)

Mid-February was once marked by a Pagan celebration of fertility. The Catholic Church ended this tradition and brought in St Valentine, the patron of lovers.

Among the ancient Romans, and possibly even earlier, mid-February used to be marked by  Pagan celebrations of fertility, called the 'Lupercalia'. 

February was considered a time of the year to prepare for spring, considered the season to celebrate re-birth. Purification rituals used to take place: houses were cleaned and salt and flour were spread around the homes.

The Lupercalia festival was partly in honour of 'Lupa', the she-wolf who suckled the infant orphans, Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

Gods called 'Lupercali' were believed to keep wolves away from cultivated fields.

From the fourth century AD, Pagan Romans used to worship the god Lupercus.

Priests called 'Luperci' used to walk to the cave where, according to a legend, the 'Lupa' fed Romolus and Remus, holding ceremonies here.

BLOOD IN THE STREETS

The streets of Rome used to be stained with the blood of animals, as a sign of fertility, while another ritual consisted in a 'lottery of love', where the names of male and female Lupercus' worshippers were put in a jar.

Then a child used to extract the names of two candidates to nominate a couple that would live together for a whole year.

POPE GELASIUS INTRODUCES ST VALENTINE

In 496AD, Pope Gelasius ended this Pagan celebration. 

Pope Gelasius replaced the 'Lupercalia' with a Christian festival celebrating the purification of the Virgin Mary instead: Candlemas, observed forty days after Christmas, on February 2.

He also introduced St Valentine, a bishop who had lived 400 years earlier. St Valentine was born in Terni, in central Italy, in 175AD, and was considered the protector of lovers.

According to some historians, the Catholic Church was determined to end the cult of Lupercus and St Valentine was a perfect figure to replace this immoral god. 

A legend tells that Bishop Valentine was the first Catholic authority to celebrate the union between a Pagan soldier and a young Catholic girl. The legend has two endings.

In one, when Emperor Aurelian ordered all Christians to be persecuted, Bishop Valentine was jailed and tortured along Via Flaminia, which runs through Rome.

Another version of the legend says that in 270AD, Valentine, then famous for having brought together a pagan and a Catholic, was invited by Emperor Claudius II to his palace.

Claudius II tried to convert him to Paganism, but Bishop Valentine tried instead to convert the Emperor to Catholicism. 

On February 24, 270AD, Valentine was stoned to death and decapitated.

The legend also tells that when Valentine was in jail waiting for his execution, he fell in love with the blind daughter of the guardian of the jail, and that he performed a miracle on her, giving her sight. 

Before dying, he left a love note for her ending it with 'from your Valentine,' a sentence that since then has become emblematic of love. 

Origins

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

It's holy, cause it's full of holes

Skeptic - from Here, 1 year

Religion, What a great control mechanism. Reminds me of Santa Claus.

Wouldn't surprise me.

Kev - from Noraville, 1 year

Wouldn't surprise me, most of our holidays are largely pagan in origin. Even Christmas, the church takes these things and puts a Jesus spin on them to keep people happy by not banning them but making sure people worship their god in the process. Over time the old message is lost and replaced by Jesus or some other Christian nonsense. On another note I agree with Eddie, know why the dark ages were called the dark ages, absolute Christian rule championing ignorance and faith over science and knowledge.

Why not?

John - from Chelsea, 1 year

Wouldn't be the first time.

TRUTH

Kara - from New England, 1 year

God bless you, Eddie. May He give you eyes that see Truth. Coz that is NOT it.

Valentines Day, Pagan or Christian.

Jerilyn - from WA, 1 year

I don't think anybody is clear on/or agrees in the legend of St. Valentines Day, or simply Valentines Day. Depending on how one sees it, It could be Pagan or Christian.

...

M - from M, 1 year

Settle down mate

Truth

Eddie - from Cleveland, 1 year

The Catholic Church is hoax wrapped in Christian appearance. woe to those who call darkness light and light darkness!!

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.