Valentine’s Day is the annual holiday honoring lovers. The cards, known as valentines, are often designed with hearts to symbolize love. Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. The history of Valentine's Day -- and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery.
The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. According to legend, the holiday has its roots in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalis/Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be the feast day of the Roman martyr Saint Valentine, who lived in the 3rd century.
Which St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a mystery. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.
Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. The history of St. Valentine's Day has two legends attached to it - the Protestant and the Catholic legend. According to both legends, Valentine was a bishop who held secret marriage ceremonies of soldiers in opposition to Claudius II who had prohibited marriage for young men and was executed by the latter. According to church tradition St. Valentine was a priest/bishop of Rome in about the year 270 A.D.
At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius-II who had issued an edict forbidding marriage. So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage.
Valentine, realized the injustice of the decree.
While Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact with his jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.
Valentine refused to recognize Roman Gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully. All attempts to convert the emperor failed.
On February 14, 270 AD, Valentine was executed.
Valentine thus become a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St.Valentine's name.
According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine's Day with romance.
In Chaucer's "The Parliament of Fowls," the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine's Day are linked:
"For this was on St. Valentine's Day, When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate."
By the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France. Despite attempts by the Christian church to sanctify the holiday, the association of Valentine’s Day with romance and courtship continued through the Middle Ages. Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. The tradition of Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until Howland began producing them in large scale. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines.The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world. Whoever Valentine was, we know he was an actual person because archaeologists have recently unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to a Saint Valentine.
