From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
FRIDAY, 14, 2014
Belinda writes via Facebook: “Omolo Beste I read on your Facebook timeline your valentine best wishes. I also read online that valentine was a catholic priest, who was martyred for his faith in Jesus Christ and for that reason he became a saint. I also read that he is the patron of lovers, how comes yet he was a priest?
My second concern is that for a catholic to be made a saint there must be some miracles he performed, which miracle did Valentine perform? Again can you help me know some saints and what they are patron for?”
Thank you for this important question Belinda. The most famous miracle attributed to Saint Valentine involved a note that he sent to a young blind girl named Julia who Valentine had befriended. Shortly before he was martyred f he wrote Julia a farewell note.
It is believed that God miraculously cured Julia of her blindness so that she could personally read Valentine’s note, rather than just have someone else read it to her. Valentine signed Julia’s note “From your Valentine,” and that loving note, combined with the memory of Valentine’s support of engaged and married couples in his work as a priest, led to the tradition of sending loving messages on his feast day, Valentine’s Day.
In some western countries Valentine day is taken seriously with couples praying for him to intercede for them before God so that their commitment and relationship may prosper. Numerous couples have reported experiencing miraculous improvements in their relationships with boyfriends, girlfriends, and spouses after praying for help from Saint Valentine.
Yes, you read it correctly. Saint Valentine was a Catholic priest who had also worked as a doctor. He lived in Italy during the third century AD and served as a priest in Rome. There is nothing wrong for a catholic priest to be the patron of lovers because there is nothing wrong with love.
It was Emperor Claudius who discovered that Valentine was performing weddings and sent Valentine to jail. Valentine used his time in jail to continue to reach out to people with the love that he said Jesus Christ gave him for others.
He befriended his jailer, a man named Asterious, and Asterious became so impressed with Valentine’s wisdom that he asked Valentine to help his daughter Julia with her lessons because Julia was blind and needed someone to read material for her to learn it. Valentine then became friends with Julia through his work with her when she came to visit him in jail.
Emperor Claudius came to like Valentine, too, so he offered to pardon Valentine and set him free if Valentine would renounce his Christian faith and agree to worship the Roman gods. Not only did Valentine refuse to leave his faith, he also encouraged Emperor Claudius to place his trust in Christ. Valentine’s faithful choices cost him his life. Emperor Claudius was so enraged at Valentine’s response that he sentenced Valentine to die.
Before he was killed, Valentine wrote a last note to encourage Julia to stay close to Jesus and to thank her for being his friend. He signed the note: “From your Valentine.” That note inspired people to begin writing their own loving messages to people on Valentine’s Feast Day -February 14th – which is celebrated on the same day on which Valentine was martyred on February 14, 270. The feast of St. Valentine was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496.
Just to highlight few Saints- the Archangel Raphael is the patron saint of physicians, all healers, the blind, lovers and travelers. The name Raphael means ‘God’s remedy’. As he healed Tobit’s eyes he is said to heal…or to rightly have caused God’s remedy.
Archangels are members of the second choir of angels or those who stand before the throne of God. They are found in a number of religious traditions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism.
The feast days of Gabriel (March 24) and Raphael (October 24) were added to the Roman calendar in 1921. The 1970 revision of the calendar joined their feasts to Michael’s on Sept. 29th.
Like St. Valentine, St. Dwynwen is mentioned as the patron saint of lovers. Her feast day is January 25. Dwynwen was a daughter of the 5th Century saint Brychan Brycheiniog. She fell in love with Maelon Dafodrill, but displeased him when she rejected his sexual advances prior to marriage. She became a nun, and founded a convent at Llandwyn, on an island just off Anglesey.
This table below courtesy- Patron Saints – EWTN.com gives more elaborate details of the list of patron Saints.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/patrons.htm
ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRON SAINTS
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
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