St Valentine

St. Valentine is the patron saint of affianced couples, bee keepers, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers, and young people. It is easy to get carried away with the commercialism and sentiment of Valentine's day but underneath the shallowness lies an enduring truth. "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love," so say the great words of St Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Love of family, love of friends, romantic love, altruistic love, love of one's enemy, love of one's neighbour, love of all humanity - nothing could be more noble, more life affirming or more important.