Be My Valentine

Who was Valentine and why do we have a day named after him?

As an amateur historian (majoring in Roman history) I couldn’t pass this one up. This is not an easy question to answer because there is quite a bit of conflicting history to select from.

Depending on which book you read, you may find one author who writes that there were two men named Valentine whose lives and stories are combined to make one great story or legend, while yet other authors may indicate there was one to three or more men named Valentine from which Valentine’s Day is named.

That there was a Valentine, or Valentinus, history corroborates.

Here is the one I like the best and I believe that it is most associated with our modern beliefs in Valentine’s Day:

It is said that Valentinus was a priest who secretly married couples in defiance of Emperor Claudius II edict against marriage. He was imprisoned and beheaded for refusing to worship the Roman pagan gods.

The most popular story goes like this:

In ancient Rome, February 14 was a holiday to honor the Goddess Juno. The following day, February 15 began the Feast of Lupercalia. On the eve of the Festival of Lupercalia, the names of Roman Girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man drew a name from the jar and the girl whose name he drew became his partner for the duration of the festival. This practice often led to engagement and marriage.

The Emperor Claudius the Cruel was having difficulty getting soldiers to join his legions and he thought the main reason was they did not want to leave their families. He therefore proclaimed engagement and marriage to be outlawed. Claudius had already made it punishable by death for anyone to associate with the Christians who refused to worship the state gods.

Valentinus (a Christian) defied the Emperor's law and continued to marry young couples, but when Claudius discovered this, he had Valeninus arrested. The jailer had heard of Valentinus' great medical and spiritual healing so he brought his young blind daughter and her sister Julia to the prison to meet with Valentinus.

Valentinus and the jailer's elder daughter became very close friends and it is said he converted her to Christianity. On the eve of his death, Valentinus wrote a letter to Julia and signed it, "From your Valentine.” The next day, on February 14, 269, he was clubbed to death (not beheaded) near a gate that was later named Porta Valintini in his memory.

When the jailer arrived home with the letter, his little girl opened it and found a yellow flower inside. She, blind from birth, could suddenly see the brilliant colors of the flower. God had restored her eyes to her.

Valentine's note to Julia, the miracle of her sister's restored eyesight, and the obvious platonic love they shared, started the custom of exchanging love letters on February 14.

In 496, Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honor Saint Valentine, who became the patron saint of lovers. Valentine was buried at what is now called the Church of Praxedes in Rome and it was said that Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave.

The date, February 14, has since been marked by sending poems, giving gifts - such as flowers and candy - and small social gatherings. During the fourteenth century a variation of the Feast of Lupercalia was started, wherein a sweetheart was chosen for the day by lottery.

Messages sent between these randomly chosen pairs became the forerunners of our modern Valentine's Day cards.

In Germany where it was wider spread, specially designed cards, called Freundschaftkarten (friendship cards) were given out by almost everyone. The pink almond blossom, red heart, greeting cards, and message, "Be my Valentine," has endured over the centuries.

Some Christian clergy today do not believe that Valentine's Day should be observed due to its Roman pagan origins. However, many of them have discovered, as did Emperor Claudius the Cruel, politically correct or not - love cannot be beaten.