Each year on February 14, millions of people celebrate the day of love with boxes of chocolates, roses, and letters of affection. However, there’s a sordid past behind it.
The 3rd century was characterized by extreme religious unrest, as many Romans were converting to Christianity. Claudius II, the pagan emperor who was very strict, wanted to stop the further spread of Christianity. He decided to restrict the soldiers from getting married because he truly believed that marriage was a distraction among the soldiers; that it was weakening them and that their wives were a reason why some soldiers were not joining his military. However, a man named Saint Valentine was secretly performing ceremonies in church to allow other soldiers to formalize the unbreakable bond of love between a man and a woman. Eventually, Saint Valentine was arrested and imprisoned in the dungeon, supposedly for breaking a Roman ban on performing marriages. The jail in which he was kept had a jailer named Asterius, who noticed Valentine talking and helping people around him.
Convinced that Saint Valentine was a man of learning, Asterius started to take his blind daughter, Julia, to him with the expectation that Saint Valentine would cure her sight. According to some legends, Saint Valentine healed Julia’s eyesight. Valentine placed his hands over her eyes, prayed to God, and Julia was able to see. This made Asterius so delighted that he decided to adopt Saint Valentine’s faith, Christianity. This news quickly spread, and some guards noticed the activities taking place in the dungeon. Then, the pagan emperor was informed of what was happening and decided to execute St. Valentine. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, in or about the year 270. After his death, Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine.”
For his noble service, Valentine was named a Saint. So this Valentine’s Day, remember not just those you love, but also those who made the day so significant.