St. Valentine as a Boy Ministering to the Birds by Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale – Based on a John Donne Sonnet – Archival Quality

This charming Valentine was painted by one of our favorite artists, Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale, for The Book of Old English Songs and Ballads (c.1915). She's made the Saint a boy, whimsically dressing him as a bishop and preaching to the birds, as he is in the poem this illustrates. It's that lightheartedness that usually goes with love. Note the hearts in the stained glass behind him. Also note that all the birds are paired off as couples. Even our Saint of love has two little cherub wings on him!Brickdale's illustration is for a lighthearted sonnet by John Donne about different birds getting married. It starts: Hail, Bishop Valentine, whose day this is! All the air is thy diocese, And all the chirping choristers And other birds are they parishioners...St. Valentine himself was a real person. While exactly who he was is obscure, it is clear he existed and was martyred and was considered a Saint by the Church of the 200s. He was a Catholic priest during a time when the Emperor Claudi