High
Days and Holy Days for February
1 Brigid
of
Brigid,
you could say, was the female Patrick of Ireland.
Historical
facts about this first abbess of Kildare may be scarce, but her
Lives, written from the 7th century, tell many anecdotes and
miracles which over the centuries have become deeply rooted in
Irish folklore. Brigid came from a village near Kildare, of
parents of humble origin, and is said to have been baptised by
Patrick and become a nun at an early age. She is credited with
founding the monastery of Kildare, a powerful influence for
Christianity in
The
miracles attributed to Brigid show her to have been a woman of
great compassion and generosity. There are stories of how she
could multiply food, especially butter, for the poor. Other
stories tell of her changing her bath-water to beer, in order to
satisfy the thirst of unexpected visitors. Even her cows gave
milk three times the same day, to enable visiting bishops to have
enough to drink.
Brigid's
cult grew rapidly in
2
The Presentation of Christ in the
In
bygone centuries, Christians said their last farewells to the
Christmas season on Candlemas, 2 February. This is exactly 40
days after Christmas Day itself.
In
New Testament times 40 days old was an important age for a baby
boy: it was when they made their first 'public appearance'. Mary,
like all good Jewish mothers, went to the
So
where does the Candlemas bit come in? Jesus is described in the
New Testament as the Light of the World, and early Christians
developed the tradition of lighting many candles in celebration
of this day. The Church also fell into the custom of blessing the
year's supply of candles for the church on this day - hence the
name, Candlemas.
The
story of how Candlemas began can be found in Luke 2:22-40.
Simeon's great declaration of faith and recognition of who Jesus
was is of course found in the Nunc Dimittis, which is embedded in
the Office of Evening Prayer in the West. But in medieval times,
the Nunc Dimittis was mostly used just on this day, during the
distribution of candles before the Eucharist. Only gradually did
it win a place in the daily prayer life of the Church.
14 St Valentine's Day
There
are two confusing things about this day of romance and anonymous
love-cards strewn with lace, cupids and ribbon: firstly, there
seems to have been two different Valentines in the 4th century -
one a priest martyred on the
So
why has Valentine become the patron saint of romantic love? By
Chaucer's time the link was assumed to be because on these
saints' day -14 February - the birds are supposed to pair. Or
perhaps the custom of seeking a partner on St Valentine's Day is
a surviving scrap of the old Roman Lupercalia festival, which
took place in the middle of February. One of the Roman gods
honoured during this Festival was Pan, the god of nature. Another
was Juno, the goddess of women and marriage. During the
Lupercalia it was a popular custom for young men to draw the name
of a young unmarried woman from a name-box. The two would then be
partners or 'sweethearts' during the time of the celebrations.
Even modern Valentine decorations bear an ancient symbol of love
- Roman cupids with their bows and love-arrows.
There
are no churches in
The very first Valentine card - a legend
The
Roman Emperor Claudius II needed soldiers. He suspected that
marriage made men want to stay at home instead of fighting wars,
so he outlawed marriage.
A
kind-hearted young priest named Valentine felt sorry for all the
couples who wanted to marry, but couldn't. So secretly he married
as many couples as he could - until the Emperor found out and
condemned him to death. While he was in prison waiting execution,
Valentine showed love and compassion to everyone around him,
including his jailer. The jailer had a young daughter who was
blind, but through Valentine's prayers, she was healed. Just
before his death in
So
the very first Valentine card was not between lovers, but between
a priest about to die, and a little girl, healed through his
prayers.
23 Polycarp c. 69 – c.155
Polycarp
was one of the most important Christians in Roman Asia in the
mid-2nd century, because of his link between the time of the
Apostles and the earliest Christian Fathers. This disciple of
John the Apostle became bishop of
Near
the end of his long life, Polycarp paid a visit to
Polycarp
returned to
All
the pagans' threats and promises did nothing to shake Polycarp.
When ordered to execrate Christ, Polycarp gave this dignified
reply: "For 86 years I have been his servant and He has
never done me wrong; how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?...
I am a Christian: if you wish to study the Christian doctrine,
choose a day and you will hear it."
The
crowd were outraged, and cried first for the lions and then for
Polycarp to be burnt at the stake. He was bound, but an official
killed him with his sword before his body was burnt. Later,
grieving Christians collected his bones and buried them. They
also wrote an account of his trial and martyrdom, which is the
earliest authentic example of its kind.
In