The legends of Valentine’s Day

Monday, February 13, 2012

EVERY February 14, around the country and around the world, candies, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones all in the name of St. Valentine.

But who is this mysterious saint, and where did these traditions come from? Find out about the history of this centuries - old holiday, from ancient Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England.

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The legend of St. Valentine

Historians like the Socrates Scholasticus, Zosimus and Ammianus Marcellinus claimed the history of Valentine’s Day and the story of its patron saint is shrouded in mystery. We do know February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.

But who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men.

Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered he be put to death.

Other stories suggest Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. O

ne legend states the imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl who was his jailor’s daughter. This girl visited him during his confinement.

Before his death, he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and most importantly romantic figure.

A Pagan Festival?

While some believe Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial which occurred around A.D. 270, others claim the Christian Church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia.

Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather 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.

The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide.

Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year.