St. Valentine's Saintly Cult (with Taylor Swift & The Swifties)
St. Valentine's Saintly Cult (with Taylor Swift & The Swifties)
Enlightenment Prompt #18
Heal a blind girl, smile
and walk towards certain death -
be my Valentine.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Valentine's Day tradition carried on throughout the West today originates in the feast day of a Christian saint. I saw his skull relic, photographed above, in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome.
Here is his hagiography (Saint's biography):
In the 3rd century AD, Saint Valentine was a priest of Rome, or the former Bishop of Terni, an important town of Umbria, in central Italy. While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Valentinus (the Latin version of his name) was discussing the validity of Jesus. The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge's adopted blind daughter. If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl's sight, Asterius would do whatever he asked. Valentinus, praying to God, laid his hands on her eyes and the child's vision was restored.
Immediately humbled, the judge asked Valentinus what he should do. Valentinus replied that all of the idols around the judge's house should be broken, and that the judge should fast for three days and then undergo the Christian sacrament of baptism. The judge obeyed and, as a result of his fasting and prayer, freed all the Christian inmates under his authority. The judge, his family, and his forty-four member household of adult family members and servants were baptised.
Valentinus was later arrested again for continuing to evangelise. He was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius Gothicus (Claudius II) himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to convince Claudius to embrace Christianity. Claudius refused and condemned Valentinus to death, commanding that Valentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs and beheaded. Valentinus refused and was executed outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14, 269.
Saint Valentine is said to have ministered to the faithful amidst the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
An embellishment to this account states that before his execution, Saint Valentine wrote a note to Asterius's daughter signed "from your Valentine", which is said to have inspired today's romantic missives.
In medieval Europe saints were considered to be incredibly important as it was believed that they would magnify the power of devotees’ prayers and carry their words closer to God. Saints could also intercede on a person’s behalf with the higher power. These are still modern Christian beliefs (primarily Catholic and Orthodox Christianity).
A similar idea revolved around a saint’s remains, commonly called relics.
The idea was not to worship the saint and his or her remains, but rather that the saint’s remains served as a kind of hotline to the divine, a direct connection.
There is a similar idea with relics in Eastern belief systems. I remember my friend Lama Lobsang Tendar telling me about a famous Tibetan lama whose remains were cremated and a “pearl” remaining in the ashes was taken as proof of enlightenment and carried around many temples to transmit its special radiance. In Buddhism relics are called Sarira.
Śarīra is a generic term referring to Buddhist relics. They can include the Remains of the Buddha or other spiritual masters, either cremated remains or other pieces, including a finger bone or a preserved body, similar to the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox incorruptibles.
Although the term śarīra can be used to refer to a wide variety of Buddhist relics, as listed above, it is generally used to refer to pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects that are purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters.
These objects are considered relics of significant importance in many sects of Buddhism since they are believed to embody the spiritual knowledge, teachings, realizations or living essence of spiritual masters. They are taken as evidence of the masters' enlightenment and spiritual purity.
The idea is that a person who has moved a little closer to god, the gods, or enlightenment, has retained some vibration or lingering quality connected to that divine experience that we can tune in to.
If this idea sounds completely alien to you, then consider the current phenomenon of Taylor Swift and her army of devotees wearing friendship bracelets to identify themselves as worshipers of her cult of personality.
What is it about Taylor Swift, or any other “star” that magnetizes large groups of people to follow them and every aspect of their lives religiously? I’d suggest that celebrities of this magnitude are our modern saints, for better or worse. They’re no longer merely human, they’ve taken on a powerful archetypal, symbolic form that puts them, in the popular imagination, close to divinity. Once enough people put their thoughts and energies into an idea like that, it takes on a life of its own. Millions of people believe, on a deep level that Taylor Swift is a goddess and that getting physically closer to her will bless them and bring them closer to divinity.
So, as we celebrate St. Valentine’s day and give our loved one a card, gift or confectionary as a token of our love, think about the power of saints, think about how popular celebrities channel the power previously dedicated to saints (and what use they make of it) and then ask how we can be little stars in our own right?
Cultivating inner light, connecting to the greater light that keeps the wheels of creation turning, and then radiating that light, which is nothing more than love itself, out into the world.
Happy St. Valentine’s Day, I hope you send and receive much love!
