Love Me Do

St Valentine's Day approaching fast! It can be a stressful time for some of us! Can you find the appropriate card and gift to convince your loved one that they still mean a lot to you? You know that it only comes once a year. For those of us not in relationships at all it is, of course, an even more stressful time as we wait for someone to ask us if we have had a Valentine's card. 

Have we ever paused to think about who the saint was and why he came to be the patron saint of love? Well here goes.....

St Valentine was  a priest who lived in the time of  the emperor Claudius who was prepared to give his life for his beliefs. 

The emperor had passed a law forbidding marriage as he feared married soldiers might not be prepared to risk their lives if they had no women or children dependent on them. Valentine preformed secret wedding ceremonies as he wanted couples to have the sanctity of a Christian union. He was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for preforming these secret marriage ceremonies.






Legend tells us that one of his judges, Asterius, had a blind daughter.Whilst in prison he cured this girl of blindness. Asterius was so amazed that he converted to Christianity. Just before his death , Valentine signed a note to the girl 'From your Valentine.'

So maybe we should focus on the real message of the saint? A man who showed us what the true meaning of love really is.  He demonstrated perfect Christian sacrificial love as we have it described in the famous passage from Corinthians 13:

'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking.it is not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.'