HISTORY OF ST.
VALENTINE’S DAY
As Valentine’s Day nears, I decided to do some research as
to the history of the holiday. What I
found was amazing and inspiring. I went
on line and discovered the following:
Almost 1500 years ago, the Romans observed the fertility
festival of Lupercalia on February 15 each year. In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius turned the
festival into a Christian festival to be observed each February 14 in honor of
a martyred saint executed in the 3rd century. He is now known as St. Valentine.
He lived in Rome in the 3rd century during the
reign of Emperor Claudius II who found himself faced with defending Rome on
numerous fronts. He needed troops…many
troops. He believed that married troops
had an allegiance to Rome inferior to unmarried troops. His solution was to ban all weddings for
Roman troops. The troops were shocked. Valentine stepped in and officiated many
weddings of troops to their lovers, even though it went against the edict of
the emperor. Eventually, word came to Claudius
II of Valentine’s activities. The
emperor had him arrested.
Valentine’s jailor was Asterius who was impressed by the piety
and prayer life of the new prisoner. Asterius
had a daughter who was blind. He asked
Valentine to intercede for his daughter, which Valentine gladly did. The results were encouraging. Never the less, Valentine was brought to
trial before the emperor who demanded that he renounce his faith in Christ,
abstain from officiating weddings for the troops, and start worshiping Roman gods. Valentine refused all the demands and told
the emperor that he would do well to worship Christ. The emperor called for Valentine to be
executed. The brutal execution was
carried out on February 14, 270 A.D..
The troops made the date, February 14, a special day each
year when lovers would exchange their love letters to each other. As I mentioned earlier, the Pope made it a
Christian holiday in 496 A.D.. The custom spread to the rest of Italy and on
the France and England in the coming centuries.
In the 1800’s, the custom came to America.
I hope that, since we know the rest of the story, we will
always look at February 14 in a whole new way.
It’s a day to remember the faith and bravery of the martyr who held high
sanctity of marriage and faith in the Lord.
May we all be encouraged to do the same each St. Valentine’s Day.
