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Today, 14 February, is the feast of ... * Valentine, martyr(s) (c. 269) - a Roman priest named Valentine was decapitated at that time, as was a bishop of Terni - although his feast is extremely popular in England and elsewhere, in England (at least) there are no churches dedicated to him - does anyone know how the custom of St Valentine's Day developed? Last year Sherry Reames replied: H. A. Kelly did a lot of research on the origins of St. Valentine's Day as a festival for lovers and published the results in a short book entitled *Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine* (Davis Medieval Texts and Studies 5, published by E.J. Brill, 1986). I wasn't convinced by Kelly's argument that we've all got the date wrong (one of the purposes of his book was to prove that Chaucer and his contemporaries must have been referring to the feast of a different St. Valentine, in early May); but his book is worth reading regardless for the wealth of information it provides on this strange and fascinating subject. * Abraham, bishop of Carrhae (c. 422) - a hermit, he preached in a village for a few years, and after converting the local population he returned to his hermitage; however, his fame was such that he was named bishop - after his death, his hairshirt came into the possession of emperor Theodosius II, who would occasionally wear it himself * Maro, abbot (433) - a hermit who lived not far from Abraham (see above), he founded several monasteries and trained many solitaries; he generally prayed standing * Auxentius (473) - after visiting many hermits, he became one himself, near Constantinople; he eventually founded a convent of nuns, the Trichinaraeae (the nuns dressed in haircloth) * Conran, bishop (sixth century?) - helped establish the monastery of Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands * Antoninus of Sorrento, abbot (830) - following a vision, he founded a shrine to St Michael near Sorrento - when he was dying, he said he wished to be buried neither within nor without the city wall; so, his monks buried him inside the wall itself * Conrad of Bavaria (1154) - a Cistercian of Clairvaux, he went on pilgrimage to Palestine, and died on his return voyage, in southern Italy; at his tomb, lambs would come and kneel * Adolf, bishop of Osnabruck (1224) - entered Cistercian monastery of Camp as a youth, but became a very active bishop * Nicholas Paglia (1255) - a student in Bologna, he was converted after hearing a sermon by St Dominic; noted for his mystical experiences * Angelo da Gualdo (1325) - lived as a hermit for forty years, after feeling guilty when he got his mother so upset about his giving his bread to the poor that she died * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Carolyn Muessig Department of Theology and Religious Studies University of Bristol [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%