sometime just before the year 300, the Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus signed an edict prohibiting soldiers from marrying. Supposedly, he felt that a soldier who had a wife and kids back home was never fully invested in what was happening on the battlefront; all the soldier wanted to do was put in his time and get home. If soldiers just wouldn't marry then they would give themselves fully to the battle and be willing to risk their lives with more abandon for the empire. All you have to do is watch the movie American Sniper to see that logically speaking the emperor had a point. The pull of home is a very, very strong pull even for the most disciplined service-person. It is also interesting that the Apostle Paul actually made the same argument in 1 Corinthians 7 regarding Christians. He felt that because the end of the world was upon them (most early Christians were convinced of this) single people should stay single so that they could give themselves fully to the (spiritual) battle and be willing to risk their lives with more abandon for the Kingdom of God. Anyway, as the story goes, the emperor declared that soldiers could no longer get married.
The Christian Church viewed marriage as sacred (and still does) and sexual relations between two unmarried people as sin (and still does). So the emperor's edict causes a problem for the small minority of soldiers who were Christian. They cannot get married but they are romantically involved with women back home. They want to make an "honest woman" of their beloved but they are prohibited by their emperor from doing so. They are unwilling, however, to give up their relationships with their significant others and we all know that when a man and a woman are in a romantic relationship that eventually it is going to become physically intimate. The Christian is to wait to become completely physically intimate until the covenant of marriage has been made between the two and God. But what if marriage was not allowed? That puts a Christian in a real pickle.
In steps a Christian priest named Valentinus. He doesn't want these soldiers and their girlfriends to have to give one another up and he doesn't want them to live in a sinful way outside the covenant of marriage. So he says, "I don't care what the emperor says. I answer to God in Jesus Christ. Come to me, and I'll do your wedding." Father Valentinus officiates at several secret weddings for soldiers until somehow he is ratted out. He is arrested, imprisoned, and beaten. You simply do not thumb your nose at the emperor and get away with it. He refuses to budge on his stance in favor of the sacredness of Christian marriage and is sentenced to death and considered a martyr for the Christian faith. Sometime later the Pope declares a feast day to give thanks for the Christian witness of St. Valentinus. The day that is chosen is February 14.
Nobody knows if any of that really happened, but it is a pretty old story and I really like it. In our current time, when some folks want to get married so badly that they're marching and fighting in court about it while other folks increasingly refuse to get married, I think it is important for us to remember the importance of that covenantal bond. Marriage can be difficult and sometimes one or both partners get so self-absorbed that they make marriage downright impossible, but the story of Father Valentinus (factual or not) shows us how serious and powerful that bond is. Those soldiers who were Christians loved their significant others and wanted to do the godly thing by sealing their love within the covenant of marriage, but their government wouldn't let them. So a brave Christian stepped in and risked it all for love. It kind of gives new meaning to Paul's words, "These three remain--faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Happy (Early) Valentine's Day!
Pastor Everett
