SOME VALENTINE'S DAY APOCRYPHA: In "No Lover? No Problem," a Valentine's Day essay in the Columbia Spectator, Paul Barndt concludes with the following:

This year, just remember that though Valentine’s Day might be named after Valentinius—a second-century Gnostic theologian who emphasized the importance of marriage to the Christians—there are other kinds of love. Maybe even some lurking around the groups of single guys and single girls sitting together watching television.

Alas, it isn't so. Valentinus (not "Valentinius") was a second-century Christian heretic, founder of the Valentinian school of Gnosis. Heretics don't get to be saints and they don't get holidays named after them. St. Valentine's Day actually honors three saints by that name, one of whom was reportedly martyred on that day in the third century. The association with love seems to come from a medieval belief that birds start to pair on that day.

Happy Valentine's Day anyway!