Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter

Saint who?
Okay drop the lace encircled hearts and put down the Godiva chocolates. The real story behind this day wouldn't make headline news. Oh but maybe the old guys' conviction and sentence would hit the back pages of the tabloids. Here's the back story. Or one of them because you know things get lost somewhere in the story telling down the ages. The dude was a Bishop or a priest, even they forgot, who married couples in Africa much to the displeasure of the Roman big wigs. They threw him in jail. Remember this was back when they were lighting their roads at night with burning christians. They tried beating and stoning him to death. Didn't work. Finally they beheaded him. Talk about some heavy capital punishment. At any rate, they buried him and he was forgotten about. And like all strange traditions of that church made him a martyr a couple of hundred years later even though they couldn't remember who he was or what he did. For all they know it could have been any number of people but that never stops them from adding another saint somethings' day to the calendar. There's only 365 days in a year so I guess they have to double up on their martyrs because they ran out of days a long time ago and just who gets February 29th sure looses out.

And now we get to modern times. Aside from the child molestation cases and all the pay outs from the church that have hit the headlines of late it seems the Vatican is running amuck with it's own internal problems. With kick backs and bribes you'd think they were acting more like the Mafia than a supposed religious organization. But let's face it these are no saints running the show. Contrary to popular belief they aren't just a step below deities. They are humans and just as screwed up as you or I. And all the bells books candles holy water and beads isn't going to change it. So save your veneration. What an epiphany!