February 14 - The Lover's Saint

February 14 – The Lover’s Saint

Saint Valentine is a bit of a mystery. There were several Valentine’s (Valentinus) in Roman church martyrology and not much is known about any of them.

As legend has it, Valentine was a temple priest (not a Christian church priest), who was jailed by Emperor Claudius (around 269 AD) because he not only helped Christians to escape persecution, but was caught while performing a marriage ceremony for two Christians. Valentine was a Christian and during his imprisonment, tried to convert Claudius. For this, he was stoned and beaten, and then because that didn’t kill him, he was beheaded.

This is but one story of a Valentine. There were at least seven others listed in various places, all of them have different burial dates, but one does have the date of February 14. The name ‘Valentinus’ comes from the Latin valens, which means worthy.

The tradition of Valentine’s Day comes from Chaucer’s poem “La Parlament de Foules” (Parliament of Fowls) written around 1381-1382. In it, for the first time in literature, Chaucer speaks of Valentine’s Day – February 14 – being a day for lovers.

During Chaucer’s time – courtly love was quite popular and in his circle of friends, this date became a day for festivities. As it expanded, the church picked up the popular holiday and there is legend that it was used to supplant the ancient Roman pagan holiday of Lupercalia, which was celebrated February 13 – 14 and was a celebration of fertility.

Whether the early Christians did Christianize that pagan holiday, the first time anything was ever done about Valentine’s Day was following Chaucer’s poem.

There is no proof that Valentinus married Christian couples or that the early Christians decided to supplant another pagan festival, but on this day we celebrate love.