"....that the English worship!"

Thinking back some 80 years, I remember that we made valentines in grade school, and exchanged them.

"Worship" or any discussion of a Saint(s) Valentine was never mentioned.

Today I read a bit in Wikipedia about Valentines and found where that old "roses are red and violets are blue" cliché that we put on our childish cards came from.

She bath'd with roses red and violets blew,
And all the sweetest flowers, that in the forest grew.
Edmund Spencer, 1590

The rose is red, the violet's blue,
The honey's sweet and so are you.
Thou art my love and I am thine;
I drew thee to my valentine:
.......
Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1784