February 14 this year brings the rare convergence of Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day. Rarer still is that it will happen in 2029 as well, twice in one decade. The two observances will not meet again until 2170. That rarity highlights an apparent disparity: “sackcloth and ashes” seem uneasy neighbors with roses and chocolates. What does penitential fasting have in common with romantic indulgence? When we look a little deeper, the coincidence of these holidays unveils a surprising complementarity, as each can bring out the true meaning of the other.

Valentine’s Day is, after all, St. Valentine’s day. Its religious origins are almost entirely forgotten (even the Catholic Church no longer observes the feast day), and details of the saint’s life are sparse. In one popular and ancient tradition, Valentine was a third-century Roman priest who clandestinely and illegally married young couples in defiance of Emperor Claudius II’s ban on marriage, thus exempting the men from being conscripted into the largely pagan army. …

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