The Story of Valentine's Day

Every year on February 14th, people around the world give gifts, chocolates, and cards to their sweethearts. This is Valentine’s Day. But who was St. Valentine? Where did these traditions come from? How has the tradition spread around the world? How did the tradition go from beheading to betrothing?

For a long time February has been celebrated as a month of romance, but many of the St. Valentine’s Day traditions are shrouded in mystery. This is the story of St. Valentine’s Day. 

When you’ve read, test your knowledge with the Quizlet and Kahoot activities.

Contents

The Legend of St. Valentine
The Origins of Valentine’s Day
The Festival of Lupercalia in England & France
The First Valentines
Where did Cupid come from? 
Commercial Valentine's Day Cards
Religious Pilgrimages
Religious Relics
Modern Celebrations

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The Story of Valentine's Day

Cover Image: Wikimedia. Public Domain.

The Legend of St. Valentine

The origins are certainly traced back to ancient Rome, with pagan and Christian roots. But first, who was Saint Valentine? The Catholic Encyclopedia and other hagiographical sources mention three Saint Valentines that appear in connection with February 14. They were named Valentine or Valentinus and were possibly the same person. (the name “Valentinus”comes from the Latin word for ‘worthy’ or ‘powerful’ and was popular between the second and eighth centuries) Interestingly, the three ‘Valentines’ were all martyrs, as early origins began during the period of Christian persecution in ancient Rome.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

Image: St. Valentine in Prison. Public Domain.

The Legend of St. Valentine

One legend says Valentine was Roman priest who lived in the 3rd Century, CE. At the time, Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men, believing that single men made better soldiers and were more likely to go to war than married men. Valentine continued to marry young couples in secret but was discovered, tortured, and executed by Claudius. This account says Valentine did the priestly act of falling in love with the jailor’s daughter and wrote her a message before his death, signing it “From your Valentine”. This was the Saint Valentine of Rome, martyred on February 14 in 269 CE, and the Valentine associated with the ‘holiday’. 

Image: Saint Valentine of Terni oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni, from a 14th-century French manuscript (BN, Mss fr. 185). Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The Legend of St. Valentine

Another legend says that Valentine was under house arrest of Judge Asterius, discussing his faith with him. As he dangerously preached to the judge he was challenged to perform a miracle. He had apparently healed his daughter’s blindness, prompting the family and servants to convert to Christianity. His act of kindness and the miracle was discovered by Emperor Claudius II, still the leader of a pagan society, and thus was tortured and beheaded. Before his death it said he sent a letter to the judge’s daughter and signed it “from your Valentine”. There is a similar story in which a bishop was called to pray for the son of a scholar or orator named Craton, who kept a school and housed visiting Greek scholars. His son could not speak or straighten his body. A miracle was worked and the family converted to Christianity. Similarly to the other account, Claudius saw this as a threat with the bishop being beheaded by Claudius. (apparently all of the newly converted Christians were put to death) 

Did you know? You can celebrate Valentine’s Day several times a year. For example, the Eastern Orthodox Church officially celebrates St. Valentine twice, once as an elder of the church on July 6 and once as a martyr on July 30. And there are more! (History.com)

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The Story of Valentine's Day

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St. Valentine of Terni

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Some say the real Saint Valentine was Saint Valentine of Terni, Italy, a bishop. He was also beheaded by Claudius. Regardless of who the real Valentine was, he was sympathetic to others, heroic, and a hopeless romantic. By the Middle Ages, Valentine became one of the most popular saints in England and France. The problem with the stories is that two of them are so similar that they aren’t likely to be true. (an imprisoned priest or bishop that healed the captor’s daughter, was beheaded, and buried along a highway) The accounts given, likely starting in 500 CE, make no mention of love. The fact that promoting love and lovers is not exactly compatible with Christian doctrine, it is dubious that the Catholic Church wanted such a holiday. 

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The Story of Valentine's Day

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Image: Saint Valentine of Terni oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni, from a 14th-century French manuscript (BN, Mss fr. 185). Public Domain.

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St. Valentine of Terni

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There are other stories of a Valentine saving prisoners from harsh Roman prisons, and perhaps as many as 30 “Valentines” and a couple “Valentinas”. Historians believe that the different accounts were likely of the same person, if any of the stories have a shred of truth.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

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Image: St Valentine baptizing St Lucilla, Jacopo Bassano. 1500s. Public Domain.

The Origins of Valentine’s Day

It is likely that Valentine’s Day, like many modern holidays, began as a pagan tradition. The middle of February is when Valentine may have died, so the holiday was to commemorate his death, which some say occurred in 270 CE. In 496, CE Pope Gelasius I and the Catholic Church attempted to “Christianize” the pagan holiday Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The feast of St. Valentine was thus held on February 14. This was dedicated to the Saint Valentine of Rome who was martyred exactly 200 years earlier. 

Image: The Lupercalian Festival in Rome (ca. 1578–1610), drawing by Adam Elsheimer, showing the Luperci dressed as dogs and goats, with Cupid and personifications of fertility. Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The Origins of Valentine’s Day

Lupercalia was nothing like our modern Valentine’s Day. Tradition says that members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, gathered at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. A goat for fertility and a dog for purification were sacrificed. (not so Christian, but performed by priests) The goat hide was drenched in the sacrificial blood and slapped on women and fields. Women lined up for this, as they hoped it would make them fertile. According to legend and written by ancient writer Plutarch, later in the day the semi-naked, drunk men and women had names placed in urns and as they were drawn by lottery men and women would be matched for the festival. (and by some accounts for the entire year) Many of these pairings ended in marriage. In the 5th Century, the Normans celebrated Galatin's Day. Galatin meant "lover of women” so this similar sounding festival probably led to more confusion about the celebration and origins of the holiday as we know it now. 

Did you know? People call on St. Valentine for help with many things such as beekeeping and epilepsy, as well as the plague, fainting and traveling.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The Festival of Lupercalia in England & France

Lupercalia was a popular celebration as long as 150 years after Christianity was legalized in Rome. Pope Gelasius outlawed Lupercalia in the 5th Century, CE, and declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day in the hopes to Christianize the tradition, though it wasn’t until later that it was firmly associated with love. The French and English believed that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, hence the association. English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules”. He wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” Does this mean Chaucer invented St. Valentine’s Day? Possibly. Historians believe this poem was the real catalyst for Valentine’s Day’s link to love and that the legends of Saint Valentine are really just myth. Nevertheless, by the 1400s nobles were writing “valentine” poems to their sweethearts and it seems that England is where the more modern origins of Valentine’s Day begins. Even William Shakespeare’s lovestruck Ophelia spoke of herself as ‘Hamlet’s Valentine’.

Did you know? Another pagan holiday that became a Christian one was Saturnalia, what we now call Christmas.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The Festival of Lupercalia in England & France

Image: Geoffrey Chaucer by Thomas Hoccleve (1412). Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The First Valentines

While written valentines didn’t appear until the 1400s, people did exchange valentine greetings throughout the Middle Ages. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (history.com) 

Image: An early hand-made puzzle purse valentine, from c1790. Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

In Great Britain in the 17th Century, Valentine’s Day was popularly celebrated. By the middle of the 18th Century, it was common practice for sweethearts to exchange small gifts and messages of affection, in places such as France, Australia, Canada, the United States and even Mexico. As printing technology improved in the 19th Century printed cards were exchanged. At the time postage was cheaper, thus the growth in popularity of the practice. It should be noted that at the time people were discouraged from showing emotions so cards were an alternative way to express one’s feelings for another.