By Msgr. Gabriel Osu
Valentine’s Day or the feast of Saint Valentine for this year comes up on February 14, 2018, the same day with Ash Wednesday. Because of the sacredness and significance of the Ash Wednesday, however, this year’s Valentine for Catholics who wished to mark it, was marked days ahead of the Ash Wednesday.
St. Valentine’s Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius the second. There are legends surrounding Valentine’s actions while in prison.
One of the men who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius, whose daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the…
Read More…..Vanguard Newspaper
