St. Valentine (www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/saints/valentine.html)
There are several ancient Celtic customs associated with St. Valentine. On Valentine's Day and also the Eve of St. Valentine's Day it was the custom for unmarried young men to draw a female name from a ballot to find out whom they may marry or handfast with. Valentine slips containing a girl’s name to be courted would be worn by a boy on the arm of his shirt—this may be the origin of "wearing your heart on your sleeve" meaning being obvious about your love for someone. The St. Valentine's Day ballot was especially popular in Scotland. A gift would be sent to the girl whose name was drawn. It was also the belief that the first person met on February 14 of the opposite sex, excepting members of the family, would later become a romantic or marriage partner.
The ancient Celtic tradition of casting a love stone is often associated with Valentine's Day. In many Celtic villages citizens were identified by a colored stone kept at their home with their name or family symbol engraved upon it. This stone was to follow the person wherever they traveled. When they died it would be cast into the sea and the name on the stone would be their identity for eternity.
Once there were two lovers from warring villages who were forbidden to see each other. The couple had to meet under the cover of night to exchange gifts and words of love. The two were inseparable, but fate was cruel and one night their secret was uncovered. Under penalty of death they were warned never to see each other again; determined not to be separated from each other, they fled deep into a forest above the sea. The young lovers rejected their citizen stones and created a new one, a single stone engraved with both their names upon it as a symbol of their love. Then the young lovers climbed to the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean and cast their love stone into the waves. As it fell they spoke this verse: "May the names inscribed here be forever united in love so long as this stone hides in the deep waters. May those who seek to separate us find us not, just as they can never find this stone." The stone sank to the bottom of the ocean and was never seen again. Neither were the lovers.
If you would like to continue this tradition, here is a modern day version of casting the lovers’ stone. (It is not the same as casting a spell, simply a gesture of love and remembrance.) Find a flat, smooth stone large enough to hold your and your love's first name. Carve or paint your names upon the stone. Find a body of water (preferably an ocean). Share a meal there with only you and the one you love. Make a vow during the meal to always love and cherish your mate and to defend him or her in this life. When no one else is around, cast the stone into the ocean. According to Celtic lore you will be brought together in the afterlife.
There is more to St. Valentine than just love. He is the patron saint of epileptics, and, like Julius Caesar, may have suffered from the ' falling sickness' himself. This is why epilepsy was once known as Valentine's sickness. He is also the patron saint of beekeepers, but the connection there is fuzzy, perhaps related to the sweetness of honey and sweet gifts as tokens of love. Pope Gelasius declared February 14th as St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D., but the Roman Catholic Church dropped St. Valentine from the calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts in 1969.
Valentine is often pictured in icons as a bishop with a crippled or epileptic child at his feet, a bishop with a rooster nearby, a bishop refusing to adore an idol, a bishop being beheaded, a bishop overlooking a betrothed couple, and a priest giving sight to a blind girl.
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