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 3^rd century.  He is now known as St. Valentine.

He lived in Rome in the 3^rd 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.