Welcome to the Dark Side...

of Valentine's day. Sorry, I ate all the cookies.


Who was St. Valentine?

The origin of St. Valentine, and how many St. Valentines there were, remains a mystery. Some say that the first Saint Valentine (d.c.269) said to be a priest in Rome and a physician who was beheaded there under Claudius the Goth and buried on the Via Flaminia.

Others say there is a second Valentine in the martyrology who was a Christian bishop who lived in Interamna, the modern Terni. This Valentine was scourged, imprisoned and beheaded by Placidus, prefect of Interamna.

Some scholars believe that these are one in the same man, i.e., a Roman priest who became bishop in Interamna and was then sentenced there and brought back to Rome for execution.

Whoever he was, Valentine really existed because archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to Saint Valentine. Alongside a woodcut portrait of him, text states that Valentinus was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius the Goth [Claudius II]. Claudius II had cancelled all marriages in the city in order to encourage more men to join the military.

Since Valentinus was caught marrying Christian couples and aiding any Christians who were being persecuted under Emperor Claudius in Rome [when helping them was considered a crime], Valentinus was arrested and imprisoned. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner -- until Valentinus made a strategic error: he tried to convert the Emperor - whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commended him to be beaten with clubs and stoned, and afterwards, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate [circa 269].

One legend says, while awaiting his execution, Valentinus restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. Another legend says, on the eve of his death, he penned a farewell note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine."


How did we come to celebrate St. Valentine’s day?

In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of Valentinus’ martyrdom.

Valentine’s day is derived from two of the most sexual Roman festivals. The first celebrates Juno Februata - the goddess of the “fever” of love, women and marriages. Her feast day is February 14. On this day, small pieces of paper, which had the name of a teen-aged girl written on it were put into a container. Teen-aged boys would then choose one paper at random. The boy and the girl whose name was drawn would become a “couple,” joining in erotic games at feasts and parties celebrated throughout Rome. After the festival, they would remain sexual partners for the rest of the year. This custom was observed in the Roman Empire for centuries.

(A cleaned-up version of the festival was re-named the "Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary" by Pope Gelasius I in 494 A.D., intended to commemorate the occasion of Mary being purified at the Temple following the birth of Christ. The date was later changed to February 2, and its name was also changed again.)

The second Roman festival behind Valentine’s day is celebrated on February 15. Lupercalia (known as the “festival of sexual license”) was held by the ancient Romans in honor of Lupercus, god of fertility and husbandry, protector of herds and crops, and a mighty hunter—especially of wolves. The Romans believed that Lupercus would protect Rome from roving bands of wolves, which devoured livestock and people.

Assisted by Vestal Virgins, the Luperci (male priests) conducted purification rites by sacrificing goats and a dog in the Lupercal cave on Palatine Hill, where the Romans believed the twins Romulus and Remus had been sheltered and nursed by a she-wolf before they eventually founded Rome. Clothed in loincloths made from sacrificed goats and smeared in their blood, the Luperci would run about Rome, striking women with februa, thongs made from skins of the sacrificed goats.

The Luperci believed that the floggings purified women and guaranteed their fertility and ease of childbirth. February derives from februa or “means of purification.” The festival survived into Christian times and was not abolished until the end of the 5th century.

Currently, Valentine's day is nothing more than a vulgar display of commercialism. I'd rather celebrate as the Romans did. :)