Taking The Saint Out of Valentine

Saint Valentine’s Day, originally acknowledging two martyrs, Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni, in 496 AD, sounds much more meaningful than the commercially driven celebration known to us today as Valentine’s Day. Now it’s just a day to send tacky cards, fluffy toys and over-priced roses. Will you be my Valentine? Sure Darl!

So when did this day take a loving and affectionate turn? Some say the first recorded association of Saint Valentine’s Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1382. Can you believe I studied Medieval Sexuality at university? I needed a filler and what an insightful one it proved to be.

“For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.*”

Translated it reads: "For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."

This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. 

Not such shallow origins after all. It was only when Mr. Hallmark and his love-sick subscribers of the twentieth century got involved and made the Saintly Day less than saintly, with cards and later gifts.

Even the true and tried “roses are red, violets are blue,” can be traced back to Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590):

She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,
 And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.**

I received a handpicked bunch of flowers from our garden (including a sprig from my beloved Crepe Myrtle Tree,) not to mention a beautiful morning cup of tea and kiss. Tonight I reciprocated with a delicious prawn, chorizo and harissa lentil dish for dinner. That’s simple and from the heart. No tacky card required.

Just as I am about to sign off my blog, I received a text from a dear uni friend who has just become engaged. Perhaps the saints are still working their miracles? Or is it Chaucer? The bird has chosen his mate!

*Oruch, Jack B., "St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February," Speculum, 56 (1981): 534–65. Oruch's survey of the literature finds no association between Valentine and romance prior to Chaucer

**Gammer Gurton's Garland (London, 1784) in I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 37