Every year we celebrate love and romance on February 14th. We buy Valentine’s Day cards, send red roses and chocolates and some of us even propose marriage or get married on Valentine’s Day; but who was St. Valentine and how did February 14th become the day of love and romance?Who was St. Valentine? As with all legends there is usually more than one story and no one really knows which one is true. This is the case with the identity of St. Valentine. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus all of whom were martyred, but that is all that’s known for certain.
How did the tradition of sending Valentines begin? The most popular legend is that Valentine actually sent the first Valentine card to a girl that he fell in love with while he was in prison. The girl, according to legend, was the daughter of the jailer and she visited Valentine during his imprisonment. Before he died Valentine wrote his love a letter and signed it “From your Valentine”. Of course no one knows if this is fact or fiction, but the legend of the romantic St. Valentine spread far and wide and by the Middle Ages Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
The oldest known Valentine is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans in 1415 to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. It can be seen today at the British Museum in London, England.
By the middle of the 1700s friends and lovers were exchanging handmade Valentines and gifts on Valentine’s Day. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced Valentines in the U.S.
Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th? Some believe that February 14th is the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial.
The other story is that in ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Lupercalia, a fertility festival, began at the ides of February, February 15. During this festival all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn and the bachelors would choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with their chosen women, often resulting in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.
In the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14th was the beginning of birds' mating season so somehow this translated into a day dedicated to romance.
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