St Valentine's Day: Its Origin and Significance

Long ago, as early as the 4^th century B.C., the Romans engaged in a pagan annual young man's rite of passage to the god Lupercus. Willing, young and single women would put their names in a big bowl. Bachelors would eagerly draw a name out of the bowl and be matched with the woman picked. They would stay couple for the year for mutual fun, enjoyment and entertainment, including sex. That ritual was repeated the next year.

The church leaders were determined to put end to that pagan, 'un-Christian' practice and sought a 'lover' saint to replace the god Lupercus. In their mind, a bishop by the name of Valentine, who had been martyred some 200 years before, became the most likely candidate.

That most likely candidate, Bishop Valentine had enraged Emperor Claudius II aka the Mad Emperor. Claudius needed good soldiers and felt that married men made poor soldiers as they regularly placed their priority on their families and were unwilling to leave their families for battle. Claudius abolished marriage consequently.

Bishop Valentine secretly invited the lovers to his place and married them. When Claudius learned about that, he was furious and had him arrested. Initially, Claudius tried to convert Valentine to the Roman gods as he was impressed with Valentine's conviction. True to his conviction, Valentine stubbornly refused and was executed unceremoniously.

According to the legend, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer while awaiting execution. Valentine signed a message to her "From Your Valentine" before his death. Till this day, that phrase has become so popular around the world. It is still currently used worldwide around Valentine's Day.

The church leaders felt that Valentine would be the most ideal candidate to replace the god Lupercus. Pope Gelasius outlawed the pagan annual young man's rite which was held in the middle of February. To mitigate the impact of that new law and to satisfy the Romans' love for lottery games, he replaced that with a new lottery game.

Instead of putting the names of willing single women into the bowl, names of saints were put in. Both men and women would draw out the names of the saints. They were then expected to emulate the life of the saint whose name they had drawn.

The spiritual overseer of the new rite was its patron saint, Valentine. Initially, most Roman males were obviously disappointed with the new lottery but with the passage of time, the pagan festival was forgotten and in its place was the now highly popular Saint Valentine's Day.

The phrase coined by St Valentine, "From Your Valentine" remains highly popular and is regularly used today.

Source:

Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, Charles Panati, 1^st Edition, 1987, Harper & Row, New York