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The most famous Saint Valentine (there are eight different saints named
Valentine in the Roman Catholic church, and seven of them are celebrated on
February 14), who probably was the origin of today's Valentine's Day, lived in
Rome around the year A.D. 270. At that time Christianity was illegal and anyone
who worshipped Christ and not the Roman gods was imprisoned. The emperor needed
young men for his vast armies, and forbade all young men in the empire to get
married and settle down, or even to have a sweetheart. One Christian priest
(named Valentine of course!) defied the decree and performed secret weddings
for young couples. Since he was going against the orders of the emperor, and on
top of that was a Christian, he was arrested and thrown in prison.
In spite of poor conditions in the prison, Valentine continued to perform Christian rites and remained kind and loving. He had earned the love and respect of many young couples (and many others in general, I assume)from his actions before he was put in prison. According to one story, these people showed their love by tossing messages and flowers in to him through the window of his prison cell. This was, according to this story, the beginning of the tradition of sending love letters on Valentine's Day. According to another story, Valentine cured one of the jailers' young daughter of blindness. The night before he was to be beheaded for his religious beliefs, he sent a note to the young woman he had cured, assuring her that it wasn't because of what he had done to her that he was to be killed. He signed the note "From Your Valentine". He was beheaded on February 14, and two hundred years later, in A.D. 496, pope Gelasius I decided that February 14 was to be the day to celebrate Saint Valentine. Shortly after Saint Valentine's death, Rome became Christian. And as so often happens, the pagan traditions continued as before, but with new, Christian meanings behind them. The Lupercalia festival still existed, but now it was a celebration of Christ instead of the old Roman gods. February 14 was still a day of celebration, but for Saint Valentine instead of Juno. Many traditions were kept but slightly changed. For example, instead of drawing names with girl's names on them, the children drew names with saints names on them and studied the drawn saint's life and asked for his or her prayers. The celebration of Vakentine's Day spread from Rome to other parts of Europe. It has been both celebrated and frowned upon during the centuries since it first started. Most of the time it has been a popular holiday, but for shorter time periods, the church or one royalty or another has deemed it immoral and people stopped acknowledging it. But its popularity has always come back. During periods of war, Valentine's Day has been considered one of the most important holidays of the year, with lots of young men leaving sweethearts behind for an unknown future. Even today Americans and Canadians send more cards for Valentine's Day than for any other holiday except Christmas. |
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