Valentine’s Day: Who Was Saint Valentine?

On February 14, around the world, Valentine’s Day, or Valentine’s Day, is celebrated. It is considered the day of love. It is a special day of the year when couples exchange gifts as a sign of love.

Special events take place on this day all over the world. In several countries, parties are arranged where singles try to find a partner. In other countries, people celebrate love. In the Philippines, for example, for several years held a competition to chorus “the longest kiss”.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength and loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

-Lao Tzu-

Almost the entire western world celebrates Valentine’s Day . However, not many people know who Saint Valentine was or why we celebrate Valentine’s Day in his honor.

Honestly, no one knows for sure why. Three different martyrs may have given rise to the celebration. However, all indications are that the celebration originated in a saint from Roman times.

The background to our celebration of Valentine’s Day

It seems that our celebration of Valentine’s Day goes back to a Roman festival that lasted for three days, known as Lupercalia. It was a feast dedicated to honoring the fertility gods held in mid-February to celebrate the official arrival of spring.

During this festival, an activity consisted of young men randomly choosing a girl’s name. The girl the man chose would be his girlfriend during the festivities and very often these relationships led to marriage. As the Catholic Church grew, one of its goals was to dispose of these pagan festivals. However, this was not an easy task, as they were deeply rooted in traditions.

Therefore, Pope Gelasius I decided in the year 494 AD. that the festival would be associated with the name of a saint, more specifically Saint Valentine. He commanded that February 14 be the official day of this celebration. However, he did not determine exactly which Saint Valentine he was referring to and at that time there were already three. One was a Roman who converted, another was a bishop and the third was a martyr from North Africa.

The most likely originator of Valentine’s Day

In all probability, it was a martyr from the 200s that Pope Gelasius I wanted to honor. There are two stories associated with this saint. According to one, he was a Roman physician who had converted to Christianity and become a priest.

His story took place in 270 AD, at the time when Emperor Claudius II forbade young people to marry. He reasoned that if they married and had children, they would not become good soldiers. Valentin, the priest who had converted, thought this was an unfair provision. Therefore, he decided to celebrate the marriage of young people in secret and thereby defy the pope’s decree.

Claudius II became aware of the priest’s “transgressions” thanks to rumors that reached him. So the emperor sent for him and the saint took the opportunity to tell him about his faith. The ruler of Rome is said to have taken the time to listen to the saint, but he plotted against him and the emperor ended up ordering him to be beheaded.

Another version of the story

There is another variant of the story according to which a doctor who has become a priest would also have celebrated a wedding in the shadows.  The difference in this story, however, was that Valentin, as soon as his actions were discovered by the emperor, was imprisoned in a terrible prison cell. As he sat there, he became acquainted with the prison guard’s daughter, who took care of him and kept him company during this difficult time.

It ended with Valentin falling in love with the girl. But when this happened, the emperor ordered that he be beheaded. He barely had time to write a short letter to her, but he had time to announce his love for her and he signed the letter “your Valentine”. This is said to be how the celebration of this festival came about, which basically meant that people wrote love letters to each other and not much more.

However, it was not until the 19th century that Valentine’s Day acquired many of the characteristics and traditions that characterize it today. Esther Howland, daughter of a bookseller, who was very impressed with an English Valentine’s day card had a lot to do with this. She designed many such cards and asked her brother to include them in a catalog he used in his sales around the United States. Her idea was met with great success.

And in 1913, the maker of the now-famous Hallmark cards, located in Kansas City, USA, decided to mass-produce cards with romantic messages, which they called “Valentine’s cards”. Since then, the celebration has taken on the character we usually associate with the day today.