A
Valentine's Day Guide for Lovers
- by KissMeGoodnight.com
“Will
you be my valentine?” – that is the
question men and women have asked each other for ages. But
when and how did it all start? With all the excitement visiting
the stores, looking for just the right gift for your partner,
did you ever ask yourself what you were doing? Who first did
this and why?
Jeez, who cares about boring old history? You broke with it
when you got out of school. Isn't it much more fun just to
go shop hunting?
Except it isn't all that boring at all, rather kind of interesting.
Here, check this out.
As you may know, people aren't normally declared saints unless
they were crucified, burnt at the stake, drawn apart by wild
horses, or killed in some other horrible way. The problem with
St.Valentine is, there were quite a few early Christians by
that name who came to a bad end. No one knows which of them
is the actual patron saint of this day for lovers. Many of
them have perfectly valid claims to the title, too.
There was this bishop in ancient Rome called Valentinius who
used to teach his flock that along with reading the Bible and
being generally pious, one ought to enjoy good love and sex
to appreciate the true spirit of Christianity! A true candidate
for the patron saint's position, wouldn't you say?
But that isn't the only one. Another poor fellow, also called
Valentine, was in prison, and going to be killed in a month's
time. His crime was that he was a Christian. I'm sure you know
that was a crime in ancient Rome.
Now if you ever find yourself in such a position, what are
you likely to do? Weep your heart out trying to prove your
innocence? Ask the guards to take you to their leader so that
you can try and bribe him? Go on a hunger strike? Cry for mummy?
Well, that's why you aren't a saint, and Valentine was.
Here's what he did. Instead of wasting time trying to avoid
a certain and painful death, he kept writing love letters to
the jailer's beautiful young daughter. And he signed them “From
your Valentine”. Sounds familiar?
Of course, when the girl's father found out what was happening,
he didn't wait for the rest of the month and finished his prospective
son-in-law the very next day. The Christians wasted no time
in making him a saint. And rightly done too.
Then again there was this emperor called Claudius in Rome
who thought sex was bad for soldiers, and made them weak. I
think he must have lacked enough personal experience, to have
a ridiculous idea like that. Whatever. What matters is, in
order to make his army stronger he created this law that no
soldier could marry. The foolish fellow must have believed
that you needed to be married to have sex.
And have sex they did. But the problem is, some of the soldiers
also wanted to get married. And help was at hand. There was
this young Christian priest in the area who was willing to
help them. He visited their camps secretly and performed marriage
rituals, all against the wish and the law of the king. Mighty
courageous lad, eh? And he died for it horribly, when he was
caught. Now guess the name of this brave young man. That's
right, Valentine.
So this lovers' season when you go out to find that perfect
gift, think for a moment about these tragic young men called
Valentine, and love your partner all the more for their sake!
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KissMeGoodnight.com
: 2006
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