St. Valentine likely had multiple personalities
Between overpriced flowers and candy hearts (never mind the pressure of perfection) it’s easy to forget the saint in Valentine’s Day.
So who the heck was he?
The better question is, who were they? Church history tells at least three stories of ill-fated saints named Valentine or Valentinus. No one can be certain which is closest to the truth, although the time of his death is generally agreed to be around 270 C.E.
St. Valentine No. 1: A soldier’s best friend.
One story describes Valentine as a third century Roman priest. Nasty Emperor Claudius II decided that single men with less to lose made better soldiers, so Valentine performed marriages for young lovers in secret. When this was discovered, Claudius had him executed.
St. Valentine No. 2: The escapist.
Ancient Rome was a harsh place, especially in prison. Christians were often beaten and tortured there, so legend has it Valentine tried to help some escape and was killed for his efforts.
Valentine No. 3: The namesake.
According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a girl — the jailer’s daughter — who visited the prison. Before his death, he wrote her a love letter signed “from your Valentine,” the expression we still use today, albeit innocent of its darker connotation.
A she-wolf, slapping, and matchmaking.
Whichever the correct Valentine, none of their stories is associated with Feb. 14. For that we have — like so many modern holidays — an old pagan festival to thank.
After gaining power, the early church changed many of its important feast days to coincide with pagan festivals in Rome, to overtake the old rituals. They made St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February to “Christianize” the pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia (and eventually outlawed it).
Lupercalia opened in mid-February at a sacred cave where infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a lupa, Latin for she-wolf. Fertility festival priests would sacrifice a goat, dip the goat’s hide in the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping women and crop fields with it.
Believe it or not, Roman women actually liked this, because they thought it enhanced their fertility.
Later in the festival, the city’s eligible young women put their names in a big urn. The bachelors would each choose a name and become paired (yes, paired means what you think) for the year with his chosen woman. Women hoped the matches would lead to marriage.
Even so, it took nearly a millennium before Valentine’s Day became associated with romantic love. In France and England of the Middle Ages, Feb. 14 was believed to be the beginning of birds’ mating season. By the 1700s, exchanging affectionate notes even among friends was common, perhaps tying it all together to look more like modern Valentine’s Day.
Minus the fattening candy anyway.
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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who feels lucky in love every day of the year. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.