Strong Heart

Strong Heart

His mother gave him a Latin name that means “strong heart.” She knew that her son needed to be strong in a world that was falling apart. Rome was in its death throes, and barbarian Goths were moving south to feed like vultures on its carcass. But Strong Heart grew up to justify the name his mother gave him. As a courageous pastor, this son of wealth brought hope to a terrified Rome. Christians and pagans alike celebrated his outrageous acts of charity. His joy was so contagious that even Rome’s rulers turned a blind eye to his preaching.

Then a new emperor rose up to save Rome. Marcus Aurelius Claudius was determined to put an end to the Gothic menace. Every Italian man was conscripted into military service. Single men were forbidden to marry. Married men were prohibited from sleeping with their wives. Claudius wanted every ounce of energy focused on defeating the Goths.

But there were young lovers in Italy. When no one else dared to perform a wedding, lovesick couples found their way to the pastor who was famous for his compassion. Strong Heart defied an emperor and performed hundreds of illegal weddings. Almost all those nuptials ended with new believers’ baptisms.

When word of the clandestine ceremonies reached the palace, Strong Heart was dragged before an irate emperor. But his contagious joy softened Claudius’s hard heart. Palace observers wrote that the pastor could have walked away a free man had he not pressed Claudius to come to Jesus. Instead, the emperor angrily sentenced him to die.

Death row did nothing to blunt Strong Heart’s joy. His jailer was so impressed that he brought his blind daughter to visit the prisoner, hoping that the man’s exuberance would pull her out of a lifetime of self-pity. Soon both were laughing, and within days they were in love. On the eve of his execution, the pastor wrote a final love letter to his sweetheart, signing it in a way that is still celebrated today.

At dawn, Strong Heart forgave each of his executioners and implored them to receive Jesus. They repaid his lavish love by beating him so brutally that his great heart exploded. Perhaps that’s why a blood-red heart still symbolizes his life.

Scholars long speculated that Strong Heart’s story was just another medieval myth. But archaeologists recently uncovered the remains of an ancient church in Rome. Chiseled in its doorway arch are the words of Pope Julius I honoring a man named Strong Heart who died on February 14. You may never have heard of Emperor Claudius, who died of disease around the same time, but today you remember Strong Heart, whose Latin name was Valentinus, and the way he ended that final letter to his sweetheart: “Your Valentine.” Giving your heart away is risky. Too many folks try to protect their heart from hurt. If you are tempted to play it safe with love, remember Saint Valentine’s story in light of something Mother Teresa once said:

If you give until it hurts, there is no more hurt, only love.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. . . . By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:34-35, ESV