OPINION:
Valentine’s Day 1929 opened with a hail of gun violence in Chicago. Murders from Al Capone’s infamous South Side Gang, some of them disguised as policemen, ambushed and killed seven men from the North Side gang of the infamous mobster George “Bugs” Moran. The massacre shocked America, and what was known as a day of Christian sacrificial love became, for a time, synonymous with hate and murder. Hate and love, violence and kindness, these antonyms have been at odds with one another for all of human history.
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Valentine’s Day 2024 is a holiday for not only of blessing a cherished loved one with gifts and cards but also reflecting on the deeper meaning of the day. We live in a time of violence and murder; hate and anger are on the rise across America and around the world. But there is a better way, the way of Saint Valentine.
The origins of Valentine’s Day are steeped in myth and mystery; there is no definitive verifiable history of the holiday. It is one of two remaining medieval European holidays that Americans still observe: Saint Patrick’s Day and Saint Valentine’s Day. Saint Patrick was a well-documented servant of Christ; we still have his writings in the form of St. Patrick’s Confessio. St Valentine, on the other hand, is much more obscure.
Valentine was a popular name in the Roman world; the adjective valens meant being vigorous or robust. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred for their faith. One of these martyrs was an Italian Bishop killed on February 14, 269, by the Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus. An unverifiable story has him writing a farewell letter before his death and signing it “your Valentine.”
While some claim the holiday arose to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death, others think that it was an early Christian attempt to repurpose the pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia. This licentious festival was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture and the mythical Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
While these murky origins cannot be verified, at the end of the 5th century, Lupercalia was outlawed, and Pope Gelasius declared February 14th Saint Valentine’s Day. The early church, therefore, recognized Sant Valentine as a martyr for Jesus Christ. His love for Jesus was such that he was willing to lay down his life, so the day became synonymous with sacrificial love and unadulterated dedication even unto death.
Valentine’s Day greetings grew popular during the Middle Ages, with English poet Geoffrey Chaucer being the first known writer to connect Saint Valentine’s Day with romance in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Fowls.” The tradition of a written billet-doux came about sometime after 1400. The earliest extant example is in the British Library, a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while imprisoned he in the Tower of London.
With the original Colonists, the European celebration came across the Atlantic to America. It’s likely early Americans were exchanging hand-made valentines early in the 1700s. One of the first people to mass-produce Valentine’s Day greetings was Esther Howland, who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts, and became known as the “Mother of the Valentine.” She ran a stationery store and enlisted her father’s help to import fancy materials from England to produce Valentines. She created a successful business in the 1850s and 1860s, one of the first women to create and run a successful commercial business in 19th century America. The commercialization of Valentine’s Day grew exponentially over the decades.
Which brings this story back to Chicago. The violence that characterized 1929 Valentine’s Day continues today. What shocked a nation in 1929 would hardly last a news cycle in a city now known for the violence that has led the nation in homicides for 12 consecutive years. The great city known as the Windy City has sadly added the moniker “Murder Capitol of the United States.”
There are many ways to address this growing hate and violence, but the best ones are founded on a self-sacrificial life modeled way back in 269 by the martyrdom of Saint Valentine. His example of self-sacrificial love echoed through the ages into the modern celebration of Valentine’s Day.
On this day, we pause to celebrate our romantic love for one person. But there is also a deeper reflection to be had. Let’s take the time to consider the example of sacrificial love based not merely on the cherished traits and merits of the objects of our love but on our own internal self-sacrifice, willing to serve others, even unto death. As the Bible says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
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Dr. David Murphy is the Dean of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the College of Adult and Graduate Studies at Colorado Chrisitan Univeristy. Dr. David Murphy joined the CCU team in 2021, after retiring in 2014 after 25 years of Air Force service and then completing his Ph.D. in Leadership Philosphy from Dallas Baptist University.
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