Abandoned_Altars

Everyone’s heard the sweet story of St. Valentine, a Christian martyr imprisoned by the Romans, who encouraged his followers while he waited for the chop by writing them messages on heart-shaped leaves. From this supposedly we get the whole Valentine’s Day thing. What the saint had to do with Cupid however, has never been really explained, except that in mid-February birds in England and France began to court. Of course, it doesn’t really matter as long as it gets the job done.

In any case, as with most pious myths, it ain’t necessarily so.

In the first place, there are three different St. Valentines, whose feasts are celebrated on February 14. But none of them may be the actual source of the celebration.

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Caption: “The Aim of Pius IX”, 1855, Library of Congress

It sounds like an absurd question, doesn’t it? What could the Pope possibly have to do with Lincoln’s death? Possibly quite a lot, it turns out.

It’s not a new idea, by any means. A friend of his, Pastor Charles Chiniquy, was a former Roman Catholic priest who became a client and friend of the future president, after Lincoln helped him legally fight the Church. Chiniquy claimed that alone was sufficient to mark him for death, and warned him of his danger from the Jesuits. But there were many other reasons as well.

Not that the mainstream media would ever consider such a possibility. Yet, with the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, there’s been a number of shows about his life recently. Most of them, such as PBS’ American Experience episode, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, follow the typical line. John Wilkes Booth is portrayed as the original “lone gunman” – an embittered loser given an unlikely chance by fate – such as Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan.

Yet, while people still debate the Kennedy assassinations, in the case of Lincoln, there definitely was a proven conspiracy. People were hanged for their roles and most of them were Catholic.

One of the conspirators who got away was named John Surratt. When finally located, he was found serving in the papal guards in Rome. And that’s just one of the amazing coincidences. For more, see The Pope, the President and the Pastor.

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