Anne Scarffe, Peak to Peak. Across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine on February 14. Who was this saint and where did these traditions come from? 

The history of Valentine’s Day and the story of its patron saint are shrouded in mystery.  Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and pagan traditions, according to the History Channel. 

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. 

One Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, deified Claudius and continued to perform marriages in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. 

Others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.

The third story of Valentine was that he may have been killed for helping Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. One legend was that an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself when he fell in love with a young girl, possibly his jailor’s daughter, who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still used today. 

Although the truth behind the Valentine legend is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, because of his reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial, which may have occurred around A.D. 270, others claim that the Christian church decided to place St. Valentine’s Day in the middle of February to “Christianize” the pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia. 

This festival was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture and the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus were believed to be cared for by a she-wolf or lupa.

The priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility. They would make the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping all women with the goat hide, as it was believed it made the women more fertile in the coming year. 

Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his picked woman. These matches often ended in marriage. 

Lupercalia was outlawed as it was deemed “un-Christian” by the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day. During the Middle Ages, it was believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. 

The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. This greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. 

Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Cupid is usually portrayed on Valentine’s Day cards as a cherub launching arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers. The Roman God Cupid has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros. According to the Greek Archaic poets, Eros was a handsome immortal who played with the emotions of Gods and men, using golden arrows to incite love. Starting in the Hellenistic period, Eros began to be portrayed as the mischievous, chubby child he is on current Valentine’s Day cards.

By the middle of the 18th century, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900, printed cards began to replace hand-written letters with improvements in printing technology. School children handed out inexpensive cards as ready-made cards were an easy way for them to express their friendships.

Americans began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland, the “Mother of the Valentine,” began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America that were elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures. Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas.

All information provided by the History Channel at https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2.

(Originally published in the February 11, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)