St Valentine’s Day

Author: Hatch, M.A., (2010), “St Valentine’s Day”, first published in The Imperial Courier, Volume 5, Issue 1, THE RMRS, p. 2.

Introduction The celebration of St. Valentine's Day on February 14th each year is steeped in legend and mystery. The motives behind the day's creation and even St. Valentine himself have been shrouded in controversy and doubt.

Saint Valentine's Day embraces a time of year that is historically associated with love and fertility. It encompasses the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera in Ancient Athens and the Ancient Roman festival of Lupercus, the god of fertility. The priests of Lupercus would perform a traditional purification ritual, slaughtering goats to the god, and after consuming wine, they would run through the streets of Rome holding aloft the skins of the goats touching anyone they met. Celebration of Lupercalia compelled floods of young women to the streets in the belief that being touched would improve their chances of conceiving and bring forth easy childbirth. There remains some speculation over the exact date of the celebration.

The first official Saint Valentine's Day was declared on fourteenth day of February by Pope Galasius in AD 496, in memory of a 3rd-century martyred priest in Rome. Yet even today it is not known for certain whether Pope Galasius was honouring this 3rd-century priest or one of two other martyred priests also associated with February 14th. One was Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) and the other apparently was martyred in Africa along with a number of companions. Nothing further is known about these two “Saint Valentines” and thus it is the priest in Rome that has become the most widely acclaimed of the three.

It is believed that the young priest in question rose to prominence in AD 270 by conducting illegitimate wedding ceremonies in the capital contravening the wishes of Emperor Claudius II. The Emperor had claimed that married men made poor soldiers and consequently decreed that all marriages of younger citizens would be outlawed. “Bishop” Valentine, however, maintained that marriage was part of God's plan and purpose for the world. He continued to conduct marriages in secret between young people, sometimes as young as twelve, in the name of love. Bishop Valentine's success gained him unwelcome notoriety, which in turn became his downfall. He was jailed and ultimately beheaded, but not before he fell in love with the jailor's daughter. It is thought that on the evening of his execution the Bishop passed her a note which read “from your Valentine”. Whether true or not, this story has blossomed into the defining tradition of St Valentine's Day.