The story of Valentine’s Day

There is no recorded history of the evolution of Valentine’s Day, but most scholars agree it began in Rome.  During the third century, Emperor Claudius ll put a ban on marriage believing that single men would be more willing to fight in his numerous wars invading neighboring territories and expanding the Roman Empire. Legend has it that there was a priest (some say a bishop) in northern Italy who disagreed with the Emperor’s new law and continued performing marriage ceremonies.  Father Valentine believed that people in love had a right to be married and have that commitment honored.  Word spread in whispers across Italy, eventually reaching Claudius. Father Valentine was arrested. During his time in jail, Valentine was visited by the jailor’s daughter. They talked, and read, and the priest fell into clandestine love. He disclosed his feelings for her the night before his execution, in a letter signed, Your Valentine. He was killed on February 14, 270 CE.

Valentine believed in the freedom to marry and lived into that belief despite the risk. His life is testament to the tradition and obligation of the church to oppose unjust laws.

The thing with history is the more you dig, the more you find, and the evolution of Valentine’s Day is rich, and it has roots in Roman customs that started long before Father Valentine was born.

The annual festival Lupercalia, celebrated on February 15, was a purification and fertility ritual invoking the god Lupercus, protector of flocks. Two naked boys would sacrifice a dog and a goat, and a Luperci priest would mark their foreheads with blood. This was quickly wiped away with a swath of wool dipped in milk. The boys were then clothed in loincloths made from the goat hide, and strips of hide were cut into lashes. They boys led the priests in a raucous and festive procession around the city’s border, chasing maidens and playfully whipping them with the goat hide. It was thought that this flogging ensured fertility and purity, and young women often vied with one another to receive the strokes, much like single women sometimes elbow each other to catch the bride’s bouquet, foretelling marriage in the coming year.  These goat hide lashes were called februra, from which we get the name February.  Lupercalia was a central holiday in the Roman calendar and Roman life.  Soldiers took their customs and traditions with them to Britain and France, including the practice of placing girls’ names in a box and drawing a lover for the length of the festival.

With Emperor Constantine’s conversion in 312 CE, Christianity became the official religion and Christian authorities attempted to eliminate the rites and rituals of the pagan religion. They found it impossible, however, to prevent the festival of Lupercalia. Their only alternative was to co-opt the holiday and insert customs and rituals more in keeping with prevailing Christian practices. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius named the martyred Valentine the patron saint of lovers, replaced the girls’ names in the lottery boxes with the names of saints to be emulated for the coming year, and declared February 14 Valentine’s Day. We have a 5^th century pope to thank for a holiday celebrating the refusal of one priest to obey the laws of the time.

So there you have it; behind the flowers and chocolates and the shiny red hearts are forbidden marriages, naked boys, and a month named after S/M gear. Happy Valentine’s Day!

--Researched and written by Carol Scott, February 2010