For Catholics, Valentine’s Remains a Saintly Day

It is not clear when the word saint was dropped from the front of Valentine’s Day, but Roman Catholics have not forgotten that Monday is a special day honoring a beloved martyr.

“St. Valentine was an early bishop of the church who was known for his works of charity helping the poor and needy,” said the Rev. James Rothe, pastor of St. Sebastian Church. “The pagan cupid has been added to the holiday in the same way the Easter bunny was added to Easter but is not a part of how the church celebrates the holiday.”

Saints, canonized for having lived exceptionally holy lives, have an exalted status in the Catholic Church. There are special calendars, book, medals and religious ceremonies to honor and remember saints. And Catholics often name their churches and schools after them.

“A saint is a person who has led a virtuous life, and we know they are in heaven with God,” said the Rev. Michael Grieco of St. Rose of Lima Church. “Churches like to be named after a patron saint. Usually the favorite saint of the bishop or founding pastor is the one the church is named after.”

Many of the Roman Catholic churches in Ventura County are named after saints, including Santa Clara Church, Santa Clara Catholic Chapel, St. Anthony’s and St. Augustine’s Priory, all in Oxnard. San Buenaventura Mission is in Ventura. St. Sebastian is in Santa Paula, a city named after a saint. In Newbury Park, there is St. Julie Billiart Church. Thousand Oaks has St. Paschal Baylon Church. St. Thomas Aquinas Church is in Ojai. St. Francis of Assisi Church is in Fillmore. Westlake Village’s Catholic church is called St. Jude’s. St. Rose of Lima Church and St. Peter Claver Church are in Simi Valley.

St. Rose of Lima Church was founded 75 years ago, and Grieco is not sure why that name was chosen. But Msgr. Gary P. Bauler, pastor of St. Peter Claver Church, has an idea.

St. Rose of Lima and St. Peter Claver were contemporaries and the two churches in Simi Valley are connected parishes, he said.

St. Peter Claver was born 450 years ago in Spain and ordained a Jesuit priest. He spent his life in what is now Columbia working as a physician and priest. The compassionate man would meet slave ships and do what he could to relieve the physical and spiritual suffering of the captives, Bauler said.

St. Rose of Lima was from Lima, Peru, where she grew up having visions of Mary and Jesus smiling at her. As a child, she would go off by herself and pray. She sometimes felt as if Jesus and Mary were walking with her, and it is believed they left silver footprints on the road, Grieco said.

Every saint has a feast day. Grieco said such days offer an opportunity to tell about the lives of the saints.

“I like to tell people if they live their lives dedicated to God’s will as the saints did, then one day they too can become saints,” Grieco said.

St. Sebastian Pastor James Rothe does not know why his church is named after that saint, since the church got its name more than 100 years ago.

“No one consulted me because I hadn’t been born yet,” Rothe said.

But, he does know that St. Sebastian served in the Roman army, which persecuted Christians, before he became a Christian and suffered persecution himself, Rothe said.

“St. Sebastian was martyred. He was tied to a tree and shot with arrows,” Rothe said.

In the early church, being martyred in the name of Christ led to sainthood. Miracles were often attributed to saints, Gaitan said. In general, saints are those who, through their lives and deeds, exemplify a life of virtue. Because of this, the Catholic Church bestows sainthood through the process of canonization.

“Everything, the completeness of their lives, is documented and verified before someone is considered to be officially recognized as a saint. They must have outstanding virtue,” Gaitan said.

St. Augustine, the saint for which the seminary is named, was a doctor and writer from the 4th century who taught poverty, chastity and obedience, Gaitan said.

St. Thomas Aquinas, a doctor, writer and priest, had one of the greatest minds in history, said Patrick Keane, pastor of the Ojai church named for the saint.

In January, Keane’s parish celebrated a feast day in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of universities and students. Everyone came dressed up in 13th-century clothes, he said.

St. Julie Billiart, the inspiration behind the Newbury Park church, was a French nun who lived from 1751 to 1816 and founded the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Paralyzed for 21 years, Billiart was thought to be miraculously healed.

The east county church was named after her because it was founded in 1969, the year St. Julie Billiart was canonized, said the Rev. Con Phelan.

St. Mary Magdalen Church in Camarillo was named after the biblical Mary Magdalen, the first person said to see the resurrected Christ. The church was originally a private chapel for the John Camarillo family, the city’s founders. They named it after their daughter, Magdalen, who died in childhood, said Msgr. John Hughes of St. Mary Magdalen.