It is one of the most highly anticipated days in the year; couples everywhere eagerly await February 14 ready with dozens of roses, chocolates carefully wrapped in coloured paper, reservations at restaurants for the ultimate candle-lit dinner and the exchanging of decorated cards filled with tender words expressing their love for one another.
It is Valentine’s Day, a day of love, courting and romance. It has inspired songs, movies and stories which make a multitude of forlorn singles wish it would happen to them, but the most important aspect of Valentine’s Day remains almost enitrely absent in today’s society.
What happened to the Saint, in Valentine’s Day? Catholics celebrate Valentine’s Day just like everyone else; they rarely attach sacred associations to the love notes, sweets, Hallmark cards and bouquets of flowers.
The saint who inspired thousands of years of love and courting remains shrouded in mystery and legend, but today it feels as if he has been largely forgotten. How can we celebrate Valentine’s Day without recognising the saint behind it?
There are various accounts as to who St Valentine was. His exact birth date is not recorded anywhere but there is no question he existed. Historians and theologians alike have come to the conclusion that Valentine was a third century Catholic priest, during the time of Claudius II.
When Claudius II ruled, the mighty Roman Empire was nearing its end. Not only did it face internal threats from corrupt leaders and administrators, but it also faced extreme hostility at its borders from the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians.
These challenges were met by the recruitment of more soldiers for the empire’s defence. Claudius II issued an edict with that effect in mind but with a strange method of achieving it.
The emperor felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families than their unmarried counterparts, making for undisciplined soldiers who were not interested in war.
Marriage, the emperor thought, made men weak so he issued an edict forbidding any man to marry in an attempt to assure the quality and allegiance of the soldiers in his armies.
This is the part in the story where fact and fiction combine, if the preceding has not been too fantastical to believe. St Valentine performed marriages in secret.
He joined couples in holy matrimony, encouraging devoted, and therein monogamous marriage. More and more soldiers abandoned their paganism, seeking out St Valentine who taught them the Christian faith, much to the disdain and burning anger of the emperor when he found out what was happening.
The story continues that St Valentine was called before Emperor Claudius II. He refused to give up his Christian faith to become a pagan; an act which would have surely saved his life.
Fully aware of the consequences, St Valentine was so bold as to attempt to convert the emperor, a move which only confirmed his impending suffering.
Beaten and clubbed, St Valentine did not die from his wounds and so was jailed, awaiting execution. It is said that in jail he cured the blindness of his jailor’s daughter, his final act of charity before being executed on February 14, 270.
Before meeting his unjust end, he was able to pen a friendly note to the jailor’s daughter. Legend has it that he signed it ‘from your Valentine’, beginning the custom now synonymous with his name.
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Another note, thousands of years later, also went unanswered, holding significant consequences for Shareen Rozario, 30, now a parishioner at Good Shepherd in Kelmscott.
But, just like St Valentine, Mrs Rozario refused to give up her faith, putting her trust in God. In 2001, Mrs Rozario received a love letter from her neighbour, Alicen, whom she had known since she was ten years old.
They had both grown up in the Anglo-Indian colony in Pondicherry, a coastal town in southern India which was heavily influenced by the French.
“The letter reached me after my son was born,” Mrs Rozario, who was in a de facto relationship at the time, said. “I didn’t reply to the letter. My son, God and myself was enough for me.”
However, things did not go as planned and, in 2005, Mrs Rozario once again found herself getting in touch with the boy she had known since she was a child.
His sister was getting married, so she decided to call and congratulate her on her marriage.
“Everything I do, God is with me,” Mrs Rozario told The Record. “Whether it is good or bad, right or wrong. I prayed in front of the altar and I said, ‘if it is meant to be, let it be; if it is your will let it be yours alone’, and God has surely helped me.”
At 2am Perth time, Mrs Rozario called her home town in India and, after ten years apart, spoke to Alicen Rozario, the man she would eventually marry.
At first, he was reluctant to talk to her, angry that she never replied to his letter but the mysterious power of love drew them together and it felt as if they had never been apart.
On July 13, 2005, Alicen Rozario and Shareen Francis were married.
“He always said to me one day I will marry you,” Mrs Rozario said. “We had a registered wedding because the immigration office in Australia doesn’t accept a Church wedding, but we also had a special ceremony at church.
The whole time my heart was beating so fast I couldn’t believe it.” St Valentine and Mrs Rozario refused to give up in their faith, despite the hardships and obstacles they had faced, as they knew that God’s love for them was stronger than any other force.
St Valentine’s official feast day was first held on February 14 in the year 496. He left behind a legacy of love of the deepest and most selfless kind, something which Mrs Rozario knows all about.
“Marriage is love,” she said. “Just like the love God has for us, that is what marriage is to me.” Mr and Mrs Rozario celebrate St Valentine’s Day.
She is looking forward to her flowers but it is the fond memories of her husband giving her presents which she treasures the most.
“After our wedding, I came to Perth first,” Mrs Rozario said.
“I had to prepare the paperwork to get my husband into the country; it took me 13 months. Ali would send me letters with sweets in them.”
“I have kept the letter from the quarantine office which said, if we find any more sweets we will fine you,” Mrs Rozario said, smiling.
Amidst the celebrations and flirtations this February 14, make a prayer to St Valentine, the patron saint of young people, love and marriage; the saint who defied an emperor and upheld the Sacrament of Marriage.