Happy Valentine's Day

I looked over at my calendar, which is a very fine religious art calendar distributed by one of the local parishes, and noted that today is the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius. These 9th Century saints were missionaries to the pagan Slavs. They converted many, translated the liturgy and scriptures into Slavonic, and introduced the glagolitic script, a precursor to the Cyrillic script that is currently used in many Slavic countries.

But, "What?", you say, "Isn't today Saint Valentine's Day?" Yes, it is. But Valentine's importance in the Church is not like that of Messrs. C. & M. Valentine is one of those early saints, like Nicholas and Christopher, about whom little is known, around whom many legends have sprung, and who either may not have existed, or exists as an agglomeration of legends about numerous people. And Saint Valentine's Day, even more than Christmas, has been given over to profane silliness.

For these reasons, I have little use for Valentine's Day. I thank Valentine for his intercessions on my behalf, if it is he whom I can thank for my great fortune in marrying my wife. I thank the Lord that my wife's requirements for today are simple: flowers, a card, some extra thoughtfulness. I am also thankful that my generation's standards regarding the display of male 'sensitivity' extend perhaps as far as requiring us to sit through some horrendous three-hankie weepy like "The Notebook". And most of all, I thank God that I am not part of the generation that requires males to endure an indoctrination in sensitivity, such as sitting through the Vagina Monologues.

[Hat tip Jim Miller. And apologies to Sasha.]