The Real Story of Valentine’s Day

This week we celebrate Valentine’s Day, a day when Americans focus on love and romance. But most of those celebrating don’t know that the man for whom this day is named was a Christian persecuted because of his Christian actions.

The following is adapted from the “Note to Parents and Educators” included in VALENTINE: God’s Courageous Evangelist, a book published by VOM as part of The Courageous Series for children that tells the true stories of heroes of the Christian faith such as St. Valentine.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on Feb. 14, but why?

Many buy cards and candied hearts and yet have only a vague idea that there was a real man — a Christian — named Valentine. Who was the man behind this holiday now known for cupids, chocolate and roses?

Valentine, or Valentinus as he was known, was a leader in the church and lived in the Roman Empire during the third century. However, there are three Valentines who are noted as having lived in the late third century during Emperor Claudius II’s reign. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni, Italy) and the third a martyr in a Roman province of Africa. Some believe the martyrdom of all three men named Valentinus occurred on Feb. 14. Many scholars believe two of them, the priest in Rome and the bishop of Interamna, are the same, suggesting the bishop of Interamna was a Roman priest who became bishop and was sentenced there and brought to Rome for his execution. It is believed that Valentinus’s martyrdom occurred about the year A.D. 269.

Though some have questioned the existence of Valentinus, archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to him. He is also mentioned in Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, written about saints around the year 1260. (This is thought to have been one of the most widely read books after the Bible during the late Middle Ages.) He is also featured in a woodcut in an illustrated book called The Nuremberg Chronicle, which was printed in 1493.

Sources indicate that Emperor Claudius II had Valentinus executed for secretly marrying Roman soldiers, defying an order from the emperor that soldiers were not allowed to marry. Claudius (also called Claudius the Cruel) was having difficulty recruiting soldiers and believed Roman men were unwilling to leave their loved ones because soldiers were required to fight for at least 25 years. Therefore, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements. However, Valentinus secretly married couples until he was apprehended and brought before the Prefect of Rome. It is even believed that Valentinus tried to convert Emperor Claudius. In VALENTINE: God’s Courageous Evangelist, the conversation between Emperor Claudius and Valentinus is based on the one printed in de Voragine’s Golden Legend. Another legend says that during Valentinus’s imprisonment, while awaiting his execution, he restored the sight of his jailer’s daughter. Yet another says on the eve of his death, he wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter and signed it “From your Valentine.”

In A.D. 496, more than 200 years after Valentinus was executed, a church leader marked Feb. 14 as a day to honor Valentinus’s courageous life, replacing a pagan Roman holiday on that same date. Feb. 14 was the day the Romans honored Juno, the Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses who was also known as the goddess of women and marriage. The following day, Feb. 15, started the Feast of Lupercalia, which honored Faunus, the god of fertility and forests. On the eve of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on pieces of paper and placed in jars. Young men would draw a girl’s name and be partnered with that girl throughout the festival. Sometimes this pairing lasted the whole year, and often they would fall in love and later marry. And what about cupid? Why does his image appear during Valentine’s Day? Cupid was the Roman god of love.

Despite the mystery, legends and questions masking the man Valentine, VALENTINE: God’s Courageous Evangelist was written to convey his courageous life and death. May his story inspire children of all ages to boldly present Jesus Christ to a world in need of His hope (1 Peter 3:15)!

Source: Courageous Series Six-Book Children’s Set published by VOM