Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1898 — ST VALENTINE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ST VALENTINE

It has never been satisfactorily explained why the 14th of February is called St. Valentine's Day. It has been ascribed as being named after Valentine, who suffered mnrtyrdotn as a presbyter of the church, under Claudius, about 270, but nowhere in the history of his life can there be found the least incident connected with him that could possibly have given rise to the practice of that day, unless as some authorities claim, Valentine being a man possessed of great love and charity, his name was thus honored and revered, but this idea does not seem plausible. Some authorities have given the supposition credence that it is possibly derived from the custom practiced by the ancient Church of Rome, to choose on this day patrons for the ensuing, year, and was perhaps taken up by gallantry after it was dropped by compulsion by the superstitious at the reformation, for Bince

that time the custom of choosing valentines was a sport practiced by the English gentry as early as 1470 in their homes, but as nil this is an uncertainty, we are left in the dark as to the true origin and purpose of St. Valentine’s Day. “It is a ceremony,” said Bourn*, “never omitted nmong the vulgar to drt w lots, which they term valentines, on t*e eve before Valentine Day. The namcc of a select number of the sex are, by an fqual number of another, put in some versel; and after that everyone draws a nafue, which for the present is called their valentine, and Is looked upon as a good omen of their being man and wife afterwards.” In some places, we are told, the custom was considered heathenish, and to abolish it the names of certain saints were written in billets and given, and this may have been the true reason why Valentino was chosen to be the saint for that day, but why the practice of sending or choosing valentines was any more heathenish than mnny another custom is not clear. They were ull foolish, superstitious pastimes. In 177!) a sport was indulged in during the month of February, when the girls burned a figure which they stole from the boys, and which they called “A HollyBoy," nml the boys stole a figure from the girls which they burned, calling it an “Ivy-Girl." It is altogether probable that the custom of sending written love messages on that day originated at the time of Queen Catherine, consort of Henry IV., when Lydgate, the Monk of Bury, wrote the following lines in praise of the queen: Seyuto Valentine, of rustom yecre by yeer* Mon linvo an usatiuo* In this regloun To loko nml serche collide* kalemlere. Ami chose tbeyr choyte, by grete affcceloun

Such as ben prlke with cupldes mocloun, Takyng theyr choyre, aatheyr sort doth falle; But I love oon which excelleth alle.