The Jeffersonian (Jefferson, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 1951 Page: 1 of 12
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WHY CATHOLICS HAVE LENT — PAGE 12
THE JEFFERS
VOLUME 3
NUMBER 7
MARCH, 1951
JEFFER80N, TEXAS
Pope Sent Patrick To Ireland In 433 !
WAS CATHOLIC PRIEST
Saint Valentine
Day Customs Had
Catholic Origin
One of tne most, popular of
the Church's saints has ever
been St. Valentine. This year on
his feast — Feb. 14th — millions
of Protestant and Jewish as well
as Catholic children in the
schools throughout the nation
had St. Valentine Day parties
and sweethearts mailed each
other their Valentines. The chil-
dren were not the only ones to
take part, however, for many an
adult got his Valentine into the
mall.
This observance of t^e feast
day of a Roman Catholic saint
on the day kept each year by
the Catholic Church for perhaps
1500 years indeed had an Inter-
esting "origin. One might won-
der how a holy priest who shed
his blood for Christ back in the
yeiar 270 happened to get con-
nected with the amorous acti-
vities of young sweethearts.
Actually St. Valentine, priest,
physician and martyr, being un-
married. like Our Lord, was no
authority on romance and the
writing of letters. His only
claim to fame was the surrender
which he made of his life to the
tyrant Claudius the Goth, who
had him put to death. Burial on
Rome's famed Flaminian Way
fo'lowod with the Catholics in
the 4th century building a
church over his tomb — about
the same time that convert Em-
peror Constantlne was building
one over the tomb of St. Peter.
For the last one thousand six
hundred and eighty one years
Catholics have honored this
martyr priest as a saint.
Our modern St. Valentine's
Day customs originated ce'n-
turies later but still in solidly
Catholic times. Because in the
Catholic countries of France and
England in the Middle Ages, the
birds of nature in the second
HERE IT IS - OUR MISSION SHRINE FOR OUR LADY
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Shown above is an architect's drawing of the proposed mission chapel of Our Lady of Fatlma
upon which construction is now under way at Dalngerfield, Texas. Of modernesque design to
fit in with plans for a possible later conversion of the building into the first unit of a parochial
school, the chapel will seat 132 persons and have a unit containing sacristy and a priest's room to
be used for instructions and 'Overnight quarters. H. L. DeLaune, a Marshall architect, drew the
plans with Earl Calk, Lone Star architect,' making slight revisions for state school requirements.
A $19,515 contract for the construction of the chapel was let on March 5th to Canterbury Engineering
Co. of Kilgore. Construction, held up a week due to scarcity of steel, got under way on March 19,
feast of St. Joseph. Special groundbreaking ceremonies were held by a not accidental coincidence
on March 17th, feast of the BVM's great friend, St. Patrick. Pictures and details of the ground-
breaking and construction will appear in the April JEFFBRSONIAN. Meanwhile alms for the com-
pletion of Our Lady's chapel is the subject of our prayerfrl appeal on an Inside page. The unit shown
on the ri^ht in the above picture still depends on $2779 it to be raised. If the reader would like
'o heln us put on our sacristy and our priest's room, ixtomunicatPons are still being welcomed
at Box 705, Jefferson, Texas. The above drawing is by Clint Greenwood, Jefferson.
month of the year began looking,
as they do now, tor sweet sing-
ing mates, the custom originated
to observe St. Valentine's Day
or half way through the month
of February as sweethearts day.
So it happened that the feast of
the great Catholic martyr priest
Valentine began to be symboli-
cally consecrated to lovers and
was designated as a proper oc-
casion for writing letters of
endearment and for the Bending
of lovers' tokens. Historically
those who chose each other as
sweethearts under these circum-
stances seem to have called
themselves thelr Valentines.
Besides the numerous lives of
the saints, both Chaucer and
Shakespeare mention St. Valen-
tine's Day.
So it is that each year on Feb.
14th Holy Church lend<8 her
great St. Valentine to the world
in order to havq, on his day a lot
of goodnatured fun.
The saints are God's friends.
They are our friends too.
St. Peter's
Roman Residence
"That Peter was at Rome, and
held the See there for some
time, we fearlessly affirm with
the whole multitude of the an-
cients. We give witnesses above
all exception, derived from moat
remote antiquity." — the Pro-
testant historian Cave.
1,518 YEARS AGO
43RD POPE SENT
ST. PATRICK TO EIRIE
On the seventh of March In
the year of Our Lord 493 God
called to Heaven one of His
greatest saints. At Saul In Coun-
ty Down, Ireland on that his-
toric March 17, 493 an Apostle
who bad won a whole nation to
the Church of Jesus Christ, left
this mortal life to take up his
abode among the elect of the
heavenly Kingdom. For Ireland's
great St. Patrick there ended
that day an apostolate of 60 long
and glorious years during which
he as a bishop of the Roman
Catholic Church had faithfully
carried out the mandate which
as a young priest he had receiv-
ed from the 43rd Pope o( the
Roman Catholic Church the
saintly Celestlne of blessed
memory.
IN 493 A CATHOLIC LAND
In the year 433 when a Scot-
tish-born, French educated priest
of the Roman Catholic Church
knelt In the Catholic Cathedral
at Turin in Italy to accept the
office of Roman Catholic Bishop,
the Ireland which awaited his
mission was a pagan Ireland.
Belief in Christ had not yet tak-
en root on Irish soil. In the
year 493 when this same holy
bishop lay dying at the marvel-
ous age of one hundred and Bix.
pngan Ireland had disappeared
and in Its place had been born a
Catholic Ireland.
HONORED EVERYWHERE
So great was the accomplish-
ment of St. Patrick In convert-
ing a whole nation to Jesus
Christ in the short space of 60
year^ that long ago the historic
Church, whicb was first called
Catholic about the year 110, de-
creed that every year on March
17, anniversary of the saint's
death, due . honor should be
given to his memory not only In
his beloved Ireland but through-
out the entire world. In every
nation on earth-yea, on all six
(Continued on page 2 col. 1)
1,638 YEARS AGO ROHAN EMPEROR, CATHOLIC CONVERT, BUILT BASILICA HERE
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One thousand six hundred and
thirty-eight years ago in the
city of Rome the greatest civil
dignitary in the world became a
member of the Catholic Church,
'a the year 111 the 30$ year old
sra of the catatcombs came' to
with the entrance Into
the Catholic Church of the man
whose predecessors in of i ice
had tried unsuccessfully to per-
secute out of existence that
Church which In the time of the
immediate successors of the
Apostles became known as the
"Catholic Chureh." As a coovert
ti the Catholic Church, Emperor
Constantlne lost no time show
ing his gratitude for the privi-
lege of being a Catholic. On the
above spot where stands today
the "modern" Si. Peter's (it was
dedicated In 1*126) Constantlne
built the first ft. Peter's Basili-
ca. By a fpat of engineering he
built It on a steep hill, a spot
chosen because he saw no rea
son to doubt the testimony of H
centuries of martyrs that bles
sed Peter' had been turled on
that hill. As a memorial te the
i flr« Msfco* «r Bom aid ftrrt
Pope of the Church he Joined,
Constantlne began Shdrtly after
313 the work or erecting a sult-
ib' memorial Over St.* Peter'e
grare. On Nov. 16," 3M <the die*
tlnguished convert had the
pleasure of seeing 'Pop* fit. By*
(Oiettailed on page S)
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O'Rourke, John G. The Jeffersonian (Jefferson, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 1951, newspaper, March 1, 1951; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth293189/m1/1/?q=%22~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.