2/14/09

Happy St. Valentines!!

I hope all of your Vdays are going quite kissingly! We sorta celebrated ours yesterday by opening my present and going to a couple of our favorite neighborhood haunts, because I was too giddy to wait to learn what my sir J's surprise was. He did well folks--not that its extremely important for me to receive things in order to reinforce my feelings of his feelings or whatever, but we did end up canceling xmas this year, as J was in Austin with his family, and last Vday was a bit of a disaster (we wont go into the details)--needless to say that he got me something really pretty that I absolutely LOVE, and this is "a good thing".
Meet my new earrings:


They say "I love you" all over them in different languages, and are from the workshop of the brilliant Betsy Cross of Betsy & Iya. Her studio/storefront is conveniently located just a few blocks from Fringe Vintage. If you haven't checked out her stuff yet, I highly recommend that you do. I've been coveting these earrings for quite some time. Really superb craftsmanship, and it makes me so so so happy to own something by such a sweet person and gifted designer!
I got J the FreeDarko Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac, which he effing loves so effing much. If you are AT ALL interested in pro basketball then you should pick up a copy, or at least read the freedarko blog. And if you aren't into pro basketball, theres a good chance this will make you appreciate the shakespearean aspect of it a whole lot more.
I also picked up a card from the glorious neighborhood niche (as in small , totally rad, space) Tender Loving Empire, and then customized it by writing "I love you" all over the front:

So again, happy lovers day. I will leave you with this tonight (from Wiki):

Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. The name "Valentine", derived from valens (worthy), was popular in Late Antiquity.[2] Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name. For this reason this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969.[3] But "Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter and those with him at Rome" remains in the list of saints proposed for veneration by all Catholics.[4]
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter, is celebrated on July 6,[5] and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30.[6]
The name "Valentine" does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as:
A priest in Rome
A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni)
A martyr in the Roman province of Africa.[7]
The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle, (1493); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor -- whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn't finish him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.[8]
The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine.
English eighteenth-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. This idea has lately been contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.[9]
While a website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and other sources give different lists of Saint Valentines, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, the Roman Martyrology lists seven: a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop?) buried on the Via Flaminia (February 14); a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18).[10]


<3 fringe vintage
open everyday

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Um...you're the best. I love your musings. I am really liking your blog. the earrings look perfect on you. your J is very cool. so glad I met him.