The More One Knows: Finding a Braver Kind of Valentine

The more you know, the more you love, and by loving more, the more you enjoy.

Love should be in and around. Today is Valentine Day. With all that is happening in our difficult worlds, it is the opportunity to reclaim your love, remembering how much it entails the sentiments of care and commitment. It should include many in your sphere.

Thoughts of love and friendship engender so many good feelings; reflections that will serve us well as we continue to manage in such difficult times.

The holiday is Diane’s favorite. For years, she has directed her energy to hosting Valentine’s Day dinner parties with warmth and live music. This year, she will forgo her efforts for a quieter time, but the spirit of the day will not be forgotten.

Know more. Love more.

Saint Valentine, a Roman priest and physician, suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus in 270 CE. Praying for the sick, Valentine is said to have restored the sight of his jailer’s young daughter, Julia. He became smitten, writing a love letter and signing it, Your Valentine.

And thus, the story begins, albeit some years after his canonization.

From the high middle ages, this Saint’s Day has been associated with a tradition of the noble affection of lovers, engaged couples, and joyful marriages. His simple love letter and his many good works have engendered a host of expressions of love over and above those of roses and chocolates.

And thus, I am so reminded because I am reading for the second time Iris Origo’s classic, “War in Val d’Orcia.” Origo was an intriguing, perceptive and brilliant historian whose works remain widely admired. She grew up in Italy with her Irish mother after the death of her wealthy American father. They settled in the Villa Medici in Florence, where they became part of the colorful and privileged Anglo-Florentine set that included the authors Edith Wharton and Harold Acton, and the Berensons, well known historians.

When Iris married Antonio Origo, they bought and revived La Foce, a derelict stretch in the beautiful Val d’Orcia Valley in Tuscany. They created an estate that thrives to this day. During World War II, they sided with the Allies, taking considerable risks in protecting children and sheltering partisans. Iris’s diary from that time is a modern classic.

La Foce Today

Valentine and Origo practiced love as an act of courage and good works during times of conflict (the Roman Empire vs. WWII).

Her story leads me to this wonderful quote of St. Catherine of Siena, rooted in love, on Iris Orego’s tombstone:

Chi piu conosce più, più amando più giusta.

The more you know, the more you love, and by loving more, the more you enjoy.

While many of us enjoy chocolates, roses, and romance in celebration of the patron Saint Valentine, I suggest you sit back and reflect; know more, love more, enjoy more.

Beyond the romance, there is a vast, courageous love waiting to be shared.

My son, Chris, wrote about it.

One never knows when an unrequited love may return.

I’ve written something like it before

I hope you can fit that kind of love into your day and share it with many.

© 2026