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The Catholic Church has dropped St. Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide feasts. But the holiday has both Roman and Catholic roots.

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St. Valentine’s Day

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A Valentine From St. Thomas Aquinas




The Origins of St. Valentine’s Day
From AmericanCatholic.org
The day dedicated to love, which has its roots in ancient Rome and on which the Church recalls a martyred saint.


Who Was St. Valentine?
From St. Anthony Messenger magazine
How did the holiday of love and romance originate and, more importantly, how did St. Valentine become involved? The answers to those questions are not easy ones. Valentine’s Day is a holiday shrouded in mystery and legend.


God Is Love: Pope Benedict’s First Encyclical
From Catholic Update, St. Anthony Messenger Press
A condensed version of Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, God Is Love. In it, Pope Benedict speaks of the love that God provides, which we must turn around and share with others.


Making Marriages Stronger
From St. Anthony Messenger magazine
For more than 30 years, the Marriage Enrichment Weekend Program has been helping couples strengthen their marriages. A similar program for engaged couples starts them off right.


Sacrament of Marriage
From AmericanCatholic.org
For Catholics, the sacrament of marriage is a public sign that one gives oneself totally to this other person. It is also a public statement about God: The loving union of husband and wife speaks of family values and also God's values.


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Blaise: We know more about the devotion to St. Blaise by Christians around the world than we know about the saint himself. His feast is observed as a holy day in some Eastern Churches. The Council of Oxford, in 1222, prohibited servile labor in England on Blaise’s feast day. The Germans and Slavs hold him in special honor and for decades many United States Catholics have sought the annual St. Blaise blessing for their throats 
<p>We know that Bishop Blaise was martyred in his episcopal city of Sebastea, Armenia, in 316. The legendary <i>Acts of St. Blaise</i> were written 400 years later. According to them Blaise was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blaise was apparently forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer, but he made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.</p><p>As the hunters hauled Blaise off to prison, the legend has it, a mother came with her young son who had a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blaise’s command the child was able to cough up the bone.</p><p>Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blaise to sacrifice to pagan idols. The first time Blaise refused, he was beaten. The next time he was suspended from a tree and his flesh torn with iron combs or rakes. (English wool combers, who used similar iron combs, took Blaise as their patron. They could easily appreciate the agony the saint underwent.) Finally, he was beheaded.</p> American Catholic Blog To give drink to the thirsty is now, as it was then, a supreme work of mercy in that it involves giving the living water of the Spirit to those who cry out for him.

 
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In the Catholic school, family values are supported.



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