The Truth About Valentine's Day

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs which were being persecuted by Claudius II, Emperor of Rome. Emperor Claudius had issued an edict forbidding marriage because he believed that married men made poor soldiers, not wanting to leave their families to go to battle. Those who did get married, were executed.

Valentine, bishop of Interamna, disagreed with the emperor and invited young lovers to come to him in secret to be married. When Claudius found that he was performing secret marriage ceremonies, he was incensed. Valentine was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who attempted to get Valentine to renounce his faith. Because Valentine refused, he was sentenced to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, beheaded. Valentine was executed on February 14, about the year 270 A.D.

Valentine's Feast Day was originally created in 496 A.D. as a substitute for a pagan fertility rite that took place in the middle of February each year. The Church attempted to be rid of a lottery where names of willing teenage girls were placed in a box and drawn at random by teenage men. By this lottery a young man was assigned a young woman companion for their mutual pleasure (often sexual) for the duration of a year. After the year was up another lottery was held. As Christianity spread, the leaders of the Church resolved to do away with this practice. They chose to mark the day as the feast of St. Valentine, martyr, because it was the day of his death, and also because his life was one that encouraged courtship and marriage. Bishop Gelasius outlawed the pagan festival, but cleverly retained the lottery, because he was aware of the Roman’s love for games of chance. But now instead of names of women in the box, there were placed names of saints. Men and women both picked slips of paper and for the upcoming year they were expected to imitate the life of the saint whose name they had drawn. St. Valentine was advanced as the overseer of the whole thing. It took some time for this new tradition to take hold, but eventually, more and more Romans relinquished the pagan festival and replaced it with St. Valentines Day.

While the pagan lottery was replaced, most Roman young men were not totally satisfied with the lottery of saints’ names and the new lottery did not last long. Instead the young men instituted a custom of offering women they admired and wished to court handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The cards became known as Valentine’s Day Cards.