Valentine’s Day is a popular occasion devoted to the celebration or pursuit of love. Typically marked by the giving of cards, candy, flowers, or other tokens of affection, Valentine’s Day as we know it today was born of religious and pagan roots. Cloaked in a degree of uncertainty, a common version of how Valentine’s Day originated begin with a fifth century roman celebration to honour two deities, Juno and Lupercus. Part of these mid February celebrations involved the custom of conducting a lottery where a young man drew the name of an unmarried girl out of a container. The girl selected became his companion for a period of time sometimes for the entire year. Appalled by this practice, early Christians leaders are said to have altered the custom by having the names of saints placed in the container to be selected by both young men and women with the idea that the name drawn would serve as a model to emulate for the upcoming year. (You imagine how the young men of Rome must have reacted to this rule change!)

Although several saints named “Valentine” (all martyred), are recognized by the Catholic Church, a likely candidate to continue with this legend involves Valentine, a priest who served during the third century in Rome. During this same time, Emperor Claudius II believed that unmarried men made the best soldiers and decreed against marriage for young men of military age. Valentine, sympathetic to the young men’s plight, secretly married those who came to him asking to be married despite the prohibition. Imprisoned for this defiance and for refusing to renounce his faith, Valentine is said to have fallen in love with the jailer’s blind daughter. His faith and his great love for her miraculously cured her blindness. He is also credited with signing his last letter to her “From your Valentine,” before his beating and beheading (coincidentally on February 14, AD 270). In AD 496, valentine was named as the patron saint of lovers to replace the pagan Juno and Lupercus. The occasion, renamed St. Valentine’s Day, was celebrated on February 14.

Although dropped from the Catholic calendar of feasts by Pope Paul VI in 1969, Valentine’s Day is still an extremely popular occasion for sweethearts of all ages.