NO GREATER LOVE; SAINT'S LEGACY HAS DEEPER LESSON.

Byline: Holly Andres Daily News Staff Writer

He has inspired the romantically inclined to pen loving sentiments to sweethearts.

Greeting card companies and the floral industry do a brisk business in the dead of winter in his memory.

The chocolate industry reports that Feb. 14 is the fourth-biggest holiday of the year for confectionary purchases, following Halloween, Christmas and Easter.

St. Valentine, however, was a little difficult to find in the first few books the Rev. Robert McNamara of St. John Eudes Catholic Church searched for information about the saint's life.

``Actually, there were two saints with the name of Valentine in the third century: One was a bishop and the other a priest,'' said the Irish-born McNamara.

The saint, or saints, whose name is featured so prominently this time of the year is considered a minor saint in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

``St. Valentine doesn't appear on the calendar list of the church. Minor saints get bumped by the major figures,'' said the pastor to about 3,000 families at the Chatsworth church. ``We don't make a big deal about St. Valentine's Day. But I'll certainly be speaking on love during the three Masses that I say Saturday.''

McNamara believes that a spiritual challenge can be pointed out to his congregation on Valentine's Day.

``We seem to emphasize the expressions of love more than we do the feeling of love,'' the 29-year veteran priest said. ``You know, when the flowers wilt and the chocolates are all eaten, love is something that remains deep inside us. Love is an attitude, a commitment, a promise. Saturday, I'll probably be discussing passage 13:4 in 1 Corinthians, where St. Paul was addressing the Corinthians about love being patient,'' McNamara said.

Valentine's Day Masses are scheduled at 6:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. today. St. John Eudes Catholic Church is at 9933 Mason Ave., Chatsworth.

As difficult as it may be to describe the emotion of love, the origin of why St. Valentine's Day is celebrated is just as nebulous.

In Roman times, a festival known as Lupercalia was celebrated on Feb. 15. It was observed with customs that were supposed to promote fertility and health.

During Lupercalia, young men would hit people with animal-hide thongs that had been blessed by Roman priests. It was believed that purification of the body was achieved by being struck by the thongs used, called februa. Young women, in particular, believed that to be hit by these blessed thongs would make them more fertile.

The Latin word februatio, the act of lashing, is the origin for the name of the month February.

Around the third century, as the legend goes, a Christian priest named Valentine was imprisoned for performing marriage ceremonies. The Roman emperor at the time, Claudius II, needed single men who would be willing soldiers, rather than married men who would want to stay at home.

The story continues that Valentine defied the ban on marriages, was imprisoned and later was beheaded.

The origin of writing love notes is attributed to this time of the saint's imprisonment. Valentine either wrote loving messages to his friends asking that he be remembered by them or people who knew him wrote words of love and encouragement to him in prison.

When the Catholic Church was legalized in the fifth century, Church leaders weren't able to abolish Lupercalia, which they considered a pagan celebration. The story is that they changed the date and assigned a holiday for celebrating the life of St. Valentine, who was martyred on Feb. 14 in about 269 A.D.

Another story about commemorating this date as a day of love was that during the Middle Ages it was considered the day that birds mated.

The use of the dove image in Valentine decorations comes from this idea. The dove also was considered sacred to Venus, the Roman goddess of love. In the Bible, Noah used the dove as a sacred messenger to discover if there was dry land after the flood.

The holiday was banned off and on in Western Europe until it was recognized as a holiday to celebrate during the 17th century.

Valentine's Day cards date to as early as the mid-15th century in England. However, starting with the 18th century, sending love messages became so popular that books were written with loving verses for people to copy out.

Commercially made Valentines were first manufactured in the 19th century. Esther A. Howland, of Worcester, Mass., is credited for producing the first commercially made card in the U.S. in 1847.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO The Rev. Robert McNamara of St. John Eudes Church says while St. Valentine is a lesser saint, the message of love is not a trivial one.

Phil McCarten/Daily News