St. Valentine's Day

When I went to the Lectionary page, I saw that today is the feast day of Sts. Cyril and Methodias and not the feast of St. Valentine. I did a search on St. Valentine, and found this in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city....Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing further is known.

....

The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read:

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice

There. That's probably more than you wanted to know.

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY!

UPDATE: No one sent me a valentine back. I must tell you that I cried. My sweet husband gave me beautiful long-stemmed yellow roses, so that took the edge off a bit, but you, my blog friends, let me down.

(Post edited to highlight the valentine message.)