Saint Valentine, Biography Of The Saint Of Lovers

Valentine’s Day is celebrated almost all over the world on February 14 and is considered “ Valentine’s Day ”. It is a day in which couples exchange gifts, as a token of their love.

Likewise, almost all over the world special events are held on this day. In several countries parties are held for singles to find a partner. In other places, manifestations of love are exalted; In the Philippines, for example, the longest kiss contest has been held several times.

Although almost the entire Western world celebrates Valentine’s Day, not many know who that saint was and why Valentine’s Day is now celebrated in his honor.

The truth is that nobody knows  for sure, since there are three possible martyrs who gave rise to this holiday. However, everything indicates that the celebration had its origin in a saint from Roman times.

The origin of the Valentine’s party

Apparently, the origin of the feast of Saint Valentine was a three-day Roman festival, known as the Lupercales. It was a celebration that was held in honor of the fertility gods and was held in mid-February to celebrate the official start of spring.

During that festival, an activity was held in which young men randomly chose a girl’s name. This was to be his girlfriend  during the holidays and many times those relationships ended in marriage. With the gradual rise of the Catholic Church, one of the objectives was to eradicate these pagan festivals, but it was not easy, because they were deeply rooted in tradition.

So Pope Gelasius , in the year 494 of our era, associated the holiday with the name of a saint: Saint Valentine and decreed February 14 as the official date for the tribute. However, he did not leave an exact record of which of the valentines he was referring to, since by then there were three. One was a Roman convert, the other a bishop, and the last a North African martyr.

The most likely Valentine

Most likely, Pope Gelasius wanted to pay homage to a martyr from the second century of our era. There are two stories that appear associated with this saint. An account that it was about a Roman doctor who converted to Christianity and became a priest.

It was the year 270, when Emperor Claudius II prohibited young people from marrying, since, in the sovereign’s opinion, if they married and had children they would not be good soldiers. Valentin, the converted priest, found the measure unfair and therefore decided to celebrate  the young people’s marriages in secret, defying the order of the emperor.

Claudio II found out about the priest’s adventures, thanks to rumors that reached his ears. So he sent for him and the saint took the opportunity to tell him about his faith. He apparently found himself amused, but the governor of Rome schemed against him and finally the emperor ordered him beheaded.

Another version of the story

Another version of this story tells of the doctor-turned-priest who secretly celebrated weddings. However, he also points out that once he was discovered by the emperor, Valentine was confined to a miserable cell. While there, he met the jailer’s daughter, who took care of him and accompanied him through that hard trance.

In the end, Valentine fell in love with the girl, but just then the emperor’s order came to behead him. He barely had time to write a note for her, in which he declared his love and at the end signed as “Your Valentine. ” It is said that this was the origin of the first forms of celebration of this party, which basically were limited to sending notes of affection between lovers.

However, it was not until the 19th century that Valentine’s Day consolidated its most main and characteristic features. Esther Howland, the daughter of a bookseller who was amazed by an English Valentine’s card, had a lot to do with it. Based on this, he designed several and asked his brother to include them in the catalog of his commercial tour of the United States. The idea was a success.

To this we must add that in 1913 a company called Hallmark Cards , from Kansas City (United States), decided to make a mass printing of cards with love messages, which they called “Valentines”. Since then, the festival has acquired the characteristics with which we know it today.