Whose feast was it, anyway?

One thing bugs me about St. Valentine's Day and that is how you turn on Catholic Radio, which I sometimes do in my car, and they tell you it is the feast day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

That happened to me yesterday on the way to work. Here it was, Valentine's Day, and they did not even mention St. Valentine!

I did, ahem, research (meaning, I got on Google) into the situation, and my fears were confirmed, that Valentine was one of the victims of this move the Catholic Church made in 1969, I think it was, to remove certain saints from the calendar because not a lot is known about them.

That downsizing hit St. Christopher too. That is why now you have all that talk about, "I thought St. Christopher was un-sainted."

Nothing against Sts. Cyril and Methodius. They are certainly photogenic.

And I understand Pope John Paul II named them co-patron saints of Europe. Europe needs help these days! So we must treat these two with respect.

But sometimes you just want to bean the Catholic Church. It is not as if we know nothing about St. Valentine, for heaven's sake. We know plenty about him. My friend Brendan is in Rome and just yesterday he posted a picture on Facebook of himself visiting St. Valentine's relics. There was St. Valentine's skull! I saw it.

And his feast day has such tremendous brand recognition, going back centuries. Shakespeare mentioned St. Valentine's Day in "Hamlet." Chaucer mentioned it.

But oh -- that is a Pennario expression, but oh -- he was a big problem, Valentine, this great Roman saint. Have to get rid of him, you know? Have to create all this confusion.

It would be really nice to turn on old Catholic Radio and hear, "Today is the feast of St. Valentine."

Oh well.

Whoever's feast day it was yesterday, Howard and I feasted. We got the Sweetheart Special from the Sloan Supermarket and I added a few touches of my own. One was this Cranberry-Pumpkin Cake. It sounds Thanksgiving-ish but I love the flavor of cranberry and orange, plus the red of the cranberries is perfect for St. Cyril and Methodius Day. I used fresh cranberries, not dried. I got away with it.

It did not rise like a cake but it is like really good, tangy bar cookies.

Delicious with today's coffee!