Each year on February 14th, many people exchange special cards, candy, gifts. and/or flowers with their very distinct “valentine” (to the tune of $18.9 Billion in 2015). This time of appreciation, romance, and love we call Valentine’s Day is actually named for a Christian martyr named Valentinus who was killed on February 14th in the third century A.D., but also has origins directly connected to the pagan Roman holiday of Lupercalia.
While little is actually known about Valentinus, there are historical accounts that describe him as a priest, or the Bishop of Terni, who was beheaded near Rome by the emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples unite in the covenant of marriage as well as escape captivity. In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church liturgical veneration of him ceased; however his name remains on its list of “officially recognized” saints.
The medieval English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, who often took liberties with history by placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts and representing them as being genuine or real, may have actually ignited what we know as Valentine’s Day, removing it from a religious celebration to that of a carnal/pagan nature. No historical record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375. In his work “Parliament of Foules,” he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s religious feast day … an association that never existed until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate.
Some believe that Valentine’s Day was an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, which was a Roman fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. For the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants, Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa.
The pagan priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility, and a dog for purification. They would then cut the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in that same day, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for a year with his chosen woman with the proposed result being off-spring and marriage.
Needless to say, at West Oaks Fellowship we are certainly not interested in recognizing or celebrating a pagan holiday. However, we do strongly uphold the values of a man and woman coming together in the covenant relationship of marriage for the purposes of companionship, procreation, and the free, loving, selfless exchange of physical intimacy. In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus said (quoting from Genesis 2):
Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.
As committed believers, we know and understand that true love originates with God (See I John 4:16) and we see His love for humanity fully demonstrated in Christ’s redeeming sacrifice!
Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
As a result of experiencing His love, one then gains the unprecedented opportunity and privilege of being humans who can both genuinely love God and expressively love others (See I John 4:19). Thus, in and through the God-ordained, God-blessed, covenant of marriage, love moves to a deeper level as faithful and responsible Christians pledge to love his/her spouse at all times, as well as in/through every, often unimaginable, circumstance of life. This is a perfect reflection of God’s love, who certainly hates sin, but continuously loves (as His character and nature) all, at all times (See John 3:126-17)!
At WOF, we are hosting a special celebration of God’s love and the covenant of marriage this Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14. You’ll be invited to fully participate as we reflect upon God’s beautiful design for family that He created for us to live/walk in, and consider the power that is unleashed through the covenant of marriage. More details will be forthcoming, but please make specific plans now to attend.
I’m looking forward to celebrating this unique day with each of you! — PF