VI – St. Valentine and the Lovers
Valentines are busting out all over. I like that these cards are all different.
Robert Place’s card remind me of several depictions of the lovers Paolo and Francesca from Dante’s Inferno Canto V, 138 when the lovers are reading a book and are overcome by passion: “That day no farther did we read therein.” or “. . .that day did we read no more.” Place says the original card portrayed Italian Renaissance marriage betrothals, but he also mentions Dante’s Divine Comedy which I’m sure is where he got the idea for using a book in the picture. I have attached a detail of Gustav Doré’s depiction of Paolo and Francesca to highlight the similarities to the Tarot of the Saints card.
As with other Saints, there are many Valentines: one a martyred priest of Rome, one a martyred Bishop of Terni, one a Bishop of Ratien, and the other a fellow in Africa, who are mixed up frequently or amalgamated through ignorance or choice. There are several legends about Valentine which seem apocryphal, and the characters seem to interchange.
Another possibility for the date of February 14th being associated with Valentine is that of the Roman festival called Lupercalia. Young men lashed women with thongs called februa made from the skin of sacrificial goats, to improve the women’s fertility Since februa uses the same root word as February it is thought that might have caused February to become associated with St. Valentine’s Day and love.
The Voices of Saints card depicts the martyr of 3rd century Italy, our martyred priest, with the blind daughter of his jailer and the yellow crocus that Valentine gave her to restore her site on February 14th. The lady with the baby might refer to the legend of Valentine secretly marrying couples when the men of the Roman legions refused to leave their families behind; perhaps the secret marriages allowed the couples to consummate their marriage and thus conceive children before their husbands left to fight? It could also represent the fertility rites of Lupercalia.
The Place card is ambiguous apart from the Dante tie-in, and the playing cards depict the Bishop Valentine who was a bishop during the 5th or the 8th century depending on the person referred to, which isn’t clear on these statues. Ann Trump, the illustrator of The Saint Deck, liked the legend that two birds mated at the moment of St.Valentine’s death, so she painted two wrens on a rose branch. Roses are symbolic of love and romance and wren males spend a lot of time building a nest.
So who knows? Have a chocolate.
Tags: Dante, February 14, Inferno, Paolo and Francesca, St. Valentin, St. Valentine, Tarot of the Saints, The Lovers
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