"Bachelor's Day (tradition) Bachelor's Day is an Irish tradition on Leap Day allowing women to initiate dances and propose marriage. If the proposal was refused the man was expected to buy the woman a silk gown or, by the mid-20th century, a fur coat. The tradition is supposed to originate from a deal that Saint Bridget struck with Saint Patrick. In the United Kingdom, a woman was allowed to propose marriage on Leap Day and if refused the man was obliged to buy her new gloves on Easter Day. In some areas a woman could propose for the entire leap"
"the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 14 became the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple on February 2 as it was introduced to Rome and other places in the sixth century, after Gelasius I's time. Alban Butler in his ""Lifes of the Principal Saints"" (1756–1759) claimed without proof that men and women in Lupercalia drew names from a jar to make couples, and that modern Valentine's letters originated from this custom. In reality, this practice originated in the Middle Ages, with no link to Lupercalia, with men drawing the names of girls at random to couple with them. This custom"
"the calendar of the Coptic Church. She has been adopted by today's LGBT community as an example of a ""transgender"" saint. Anastasia the Patrician Saint Anastasia the Patrician (""Anastasia Patricia""; fl. 567) was a Byzantine courtier and Saint. She was the wife of a consul and a lady-in-waiting to the Byzantine empress Theodora. Justinian I, Theodora's husband, pursued her, arousing Theodora's jealousy. Anastasia tried to avoid any trouble and left for Egypt. She arrived at a place called Pempton, near Alexandria, where she founded a monastery which would later be named after her. Following the death of Theodora in 548,"
"Scotland and Ireland, 29 February in a leap year is said to be the one day when a woman can propose to her partner. Finland has the same custom, with the addition that a man rejecting such a proposal was expected to buy his suitor enough cloth for a skirt as compensation. As a monarch, Queen Victoria had to propose to Prince Albert. Proposals by women have become more common in the English-speaking world in recent years, so jewelry companies have manufactured engagement rings for men. In the United States, about 5% of proposals are made by women. Younger people"
"was combated by priests, for example by Frances de Sales around 1600, apparently by replacing it with a religious custom of girls drawing the names of apostles from the altar. However, this religious custom is recorded as soon as the 13th century in the life of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, so it could have a different origin. Jack B. Oruch writes that the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in ""Parlement of Foules"" (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer wrote: ""For this was on seynt Volantynys dayWhan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make"".[""For this was"
"forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his judge, and before his execution he wrote her a letter signed ""Your Valentine"" as a farewell. The day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as """"valentines""""). Valentine's"
"(especially White Carniola), Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring. Valentine's Day has only recently been celebrated as the day of love. The day of love was traditionally March 12, the Saint Gregory's day, or February 22, Saint Vincent's Day. The patron of love was Saint Anthony, whose day has been celebrated on June 13. There is no evidence of any link between St. Valentine's Day and the rites of the ancient Roman festival Lupercalia, despite many claims by many authors. The celebration of Saint Valentine did not have any romantic connotations until Chaucer's poetry about ""Valentines"" in the 14th"
"in 1597, it was put on the day of her death, April 29; however, because this conflicted with the feast of Saint Peter of Verona which also fell on the 29th of April, Catherine's feast day was moved in 1628 to the new date of April 30. In the 1969 revision of the calendar, it was decided to leave the celebration of the feast of St Peter of Verona to local calendars, because he was not as well known worldwide, and Catherine's feast was restored to April 29. In his decree of 13 April 1866, Pope Pius IX declared Catherine"
"in the Church of England, for example, it was included in Calendars before the Reformation, and S.Valentine, Bishop and Martyr, was restored to the Church's Calendar in the 1661–62 ""Book of Common Prayer"". He remains in the Calendars of the Church of England and in those of most other parts of the Anglican Communion, albeit sometimes noted as an ancient memorial of obscure historical character. Saint Valentine Saint Valentine (, ), officially Saint Valentine of Rome, was a widely recognized 3rd-century Roman saint commemorated on February 14 and since the High Middle Ages is associated with a tradition of courtly"
"his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship."" Another embellishment suggests that Saint Valentine performed clandestine Christian weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry. The Roman Emperor Claudius II supposedly forbade this in order to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. However, George Monger writes that this marriage ban was never issued and that Claudius II told his soldiers to take two or three women for themselves after his victory over the Goths. According to legend, in order ""to remind these men of their vows and"
"Saint Valentine Saint Valentine (, ), officially Saint Valentine of Rome, was a widely recognized 3rd-century Roman saint commemorated on February 14 and since the High Middle Ages is associated with a tradition of courtly love. All that is reliably known of the saint commemorated on February 14 is his name and that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia close to the Ponte Milvio to the north of Rome on that day. It is uncertain whether Saint Valentine was one individual or a pseudonym for several. Several different martyrologies have been added to later"
"Euphrosyne of Alexandria Saint Euphrosyne of Alexandria (Greek: ""Ἁγια Ευφροσύνη""; fl. 5th century CE) was a female saint who adopted male attire and lived at a local monastery as an ascetic. Her feast day is celebrated both in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches on 25 September. Euphrosyne was the beloved only daughter of a rich man of Alexandria, miraculously born in her parents' old age in answer to a monk's prayer. Her loving father, Paphnutius, desired to marry her to a wealthy youth. But having already consecrated her life to God and under pressure to break her vow, she"
"language of flowers – giving a single red rose meant 'I love you'. Saint Valentine, a Roman Catholic Bishop or priest who was martyred in about 296 AD, seems to have had no known connection with romantic love, but the day of his martyrdom on the Roman Catholic calendar, Saint Valentine's Day (February 14), became, in the 14th century, an occasion for lovers to send messages to each other. In recent years the celebration of Saint Valentine' s day has spread beyond Christian countries to Japan and China and other parts of the world. The celebration of Saint Valentine's Day"
"Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30. Notwithstanding, because of the relative obscurity of these two saints in the East and since there is no commemoration of St. Valentine in the Greek Orthodox Church, members of the Greek Orthodox Church named Valentinos (male) or Valentina (female) may observe their name day on the Western ecclesiastical calendar date of February 14. The name ""Valentinus"" does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, the Chronography of 354, although the patron of the Chronography's compilation was a wealthy Roman Christian named Valentinus. However, it is found"
"day of the Seven Holy Founders was moved to 12 February. In accordance with liturgical tradition, the date was changed in 1969 to the anniversary of the death of one of them, Alexis Falconieri, which occurred on 17 February 1310. Connected with the first order of men are the cloistered nuns of the second order, which originated with converts of St. Philip Benizi. These sisters have monasteries in Spain, Italy, England, the Tyrol, and Germany. The Mantellate is a third order of women founded by Juliana Falconieri, to whom St. Philip gave the habit in 1284. From Italy it spread"
"account of Saint Valentine of Rome imprisonment for performing weddings for soldiers, who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his judge, and before his execution he wrote her a letter signed ""Your Valentine"" as a farewell. The day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each"
"wrote that she fled to Arabia. Caesar Baronius identified the maiden in Eusebius' narrative as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, however the hagiographical Bollandists rejected this theory. In the 16th century, Dorothea was confused with Dorothea of Caesarea, a more famous saint of the same name, whose feast day is 6 February. Consequently, sometimes 6 February was celebrated also as the feast of the Alexandrian saint. She is not recorded in the ""Roman Martyrology"" of the Catholic Church. Dorothea of Alexandria Saint Dorothea of Alexandria (died c. 320) is venerated as a Christian virgin martyr. Her legend states that the Roman"
"of which from time immemorial they have been the chief patrons. Their common feast day on 15 February, the traditional date of their martyrdom, was inserted into the General Roman Calendar . It was removed in 1969, because their ""Acts are completely fabulous, treating Jovita as a preacher, although she was a woman and a man was Faustinus."" However modern minds tend to forget that the name Jovita or Giovita was a man's name in the pre-Christian and early Christian era. Savio highlights that the saints are not to be identified with the fabulous figures in the Acts. The two"
"it is built. It hosted the martyr's relics until the 13th century, when they were transferred to Santa Prassede, and the ancient basilica decayed. English 18th-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine's identity, suggested that Valentine's Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia (mid-February in Rome). This idea has lately been dismissed by other researchers, such as Professor Jack B. Oruch of the University of Kansas, Henry Ansgar Kelly of the University of California, Los Angeles and Associate Professor Michael Matthew Kaylor of the Masaryk University. Many of"
"in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which was compiled between 460 and 544 from earlier local sources. The feast of St. Valentine of February 14 was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among all those ""... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God."" As Gelasius implies, nothing was then known about his life. ""The Catholic Encyclopedia"" and other hagiographical sources speak of three Saint Valentines that appear in connection with February 14. One was a Roman priest, another the bishop of Interamna (modern Terni, Italy) both buried along the"
"July 30, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni). Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (""Valentinus presb. m. Romae"") and Valentine of Terni (""Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae""). Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred in 269 and was added to the calendar of saints by Pope Galesius in 496 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The relics of Saint Valentine were kept in the"
"celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in various Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of 'commemoration' in the calendar of saints in the Anglican Communion. In addition, the feast day of Saint Valentine is also given in the calendar of saints of the Lutheran Church. However, in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: ""Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular"
"Gwen Teirbron Saint Gwen Teirbron (French: Blanche; Latin: Alba Trimammis or Candida; possibly English: Wite) was a Breton holy woman and wife of Saint Fragan who supposedly lived in the 5th or 6th century. Her epithet is Welsh for '(of the) three breasts'. Popular devotion interpreted Gwen's unusual physical and spiritual fecundity by God's gift to her of a third breast. Her iconography followed suit. Gwen is invoked for women's fertility. She is commemorated on 3 October in the Catholic Church (although this has been transferred from Saint Candidus of Rome), and on 18 July (NS) by the Russian Orthodox"
"took the vows. She had described her adventures (though not her cross-dressing) to the monk charged with her instruction. Her true sex was discovered upon her death. An abbot of a nearby monastery wrote an account of her life in 1188, the year of her death. Hildegund should not be confused with Saint Hildegund (c. 1130–1178), whose feast day is 6 February. Hildegund (virgin) Hildegund (died 1188) was a German woman who lived under the name Joseph disguised as a male in a monastery. She is often described as a saint (feast day April 20), though her cult has never"
"Godelieve Saint Godelieve (also known as Godeleva, Godeliève, Godelina) () ( 1052 – 6 July 1070) is a Flemish saint. Tradition, as recorded in her ""Vita"", states that she was pious as a young girl, and became much sought after by suitors as a beautiful young woman. Godelieve, however, wanted to become a nun. A nobleman named Bertolf (Berthold) of Gistel, however, determined to marry her, successfully invoked the help of her father's overlord, Eustace II, Count of Boulogne. Berthold's servants were ordered to provide only bread and water to the young bride. Godelieve shared this food with the poor."
"of the emperor Claudius and secretly married couples so that the husbands wouldn't have to go to war. The legend claims that soldiers were sparse at this time so this was a big inconvenience to the emperor. Another legend is that Valentine refused to sacrifice to pagan gods. Being imprisoned for this, Valentine gave his testimony in prison and through his prayers healed the jailer's daughter who was suffering from blindness. On the day of his execution he left her a note that was signed, ""Your Valentine"". Saint Valentine was not exceptionally more venerated than other saints and it seems"
"Pharaildis Saint Pharaildis or Pharailde () is an 8th-century Belgian saint in Roman Catholicism, and patron saint of Ghent. Her dates are imprecise, but she lived to a great age and died on January 5 at ninety. Pharaildis was married against her will at a young age with a nobleman, even after having made a private vow of virginity. Her husband insisted that she was married to him, and her sexual fidelity was owed to him, not God. She was therefore physically abused for her refusal to submit to him, and for her late night visits to churches. When widowed,"
"Theodora and Didymus Saints Theodora and Didymus (died 304) are Christian saints whose legend is based on a 4th-century ""acta"" and the word of Saint Ambrose. The pair were martyred in the reigns of co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximianus. Theodora was a young noblewoman of Alexandria who had refused to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. Standing trial before the prefect Eustratius, she bravely confessed herself a Christian. The prefect asked why she had not married, pointing out that she was of a noble family and beautiful and could have her choice of husbands. She replied that she had"
"God’s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment"", giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine's Day. Saint Valentine supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring, customarily worn on the hands of Christian bishops with an image of Cupid engraved in it, a recognizable symbol associated with love that was legal under the Roman Empire; Roman soldiers would recognize the ring and ask him to perform marriage for them. Probably due to the association with Saint Valentine, amethyst has become the birthstone of February, which"
"on January 25 instead of (or as well as) Valentine's Day. The day commemorates St Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of love. The Welsh name for Saint Valentine is 'Sant Ffolant'. On Saint Valentine's Day in Ireland, many individuals who seek true love make a Christian pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, which is said to house relics of Saint Valentine of Rome; they pray at the shrine in hope of finding romance. There lies a book in which foreigners and locals have written their prayer requests for love. In Finland Valentine's"
"for St. Valentine's Day (the Feast of St. Valentine), which includes the optional rite of the renewal of marriage vows. In 2016, Catholic Bishops of England and Wales established a novena prayer ""to support single people seeking a spouse ahead of St Valentine’s Day."" Valentine's Day customs developed in early modern England and spread throughout the English-speaking world in the 19th century. In the later 20th and early 21st centuries, these customs spread to other countries, but their effect has been more limited than those of Hallowe'en, or than aspects of Christmas, (such as Santa Claus). Valentine's Day is celebrated"
"correspondence, which provides rare evidence for interaction between female religious leaders in the Early Medieval period. In this letter Ælfflaed seeks advice and assistance for a fellow abbess, who wished to go on pilgrimage to Rome, shedding light on Whitby's Continental connections in the years after Hilda's death. Her piety was praised by contemporaries such as Bede and Stephen of Ripon. Bede refers to her high degree of holiness and devotion, while Stephen calls her the consoler of the whole kingdom and the best counsellor. Ælfflæd was considered a saint and her feast day was celebrated on 8 February. She"
"Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. Originating as a Western Christian feast day honoring one or two early saints named Valentinus, Valentine's Day is recognized as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love in many regions around the world, although it is not a public holiday in any country. Martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14 are presented in martyrologies, including a written account of Saint Valentine of Rome imprisonment for performing weddings for soldiers, who were"