From Your Valentine – The story behind Valentine’s Day
What’s the story? Where did the name come from?
Legend has it that the day gets its name from a Saint.
The most popular belief is that St Valentine was a priest from Rome in 3rd Century AD.
It is believed that the ruler at that time, Emperor Claudius II, had banned marriage as he thought that married men made poor soldiers.
Valentine disagreed with the Emperor and so conducted secret marriage ceremonies.
This obviously enraged the proud Emperor and he arranged for Valentine to be thrown into jail.
Legend also tells of another story, that happened during Valentine’s imprisonment after he tutored a girl named Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer. The legend states God restored Julia’s sight after she and Valentine prayed together.
As the story goes, during Valentine’s imprisonment he tried converting Claudius to Christianity. Claudius became enraged and ordered Valentine to reject his faith or be killed. He refused to forsake his faith, so Valentine was beheaded On February 14th.
On the eve of his execution, he wrote the jailers daughter (Julia) a love letter signing it, ‘ From your Valentine ’.
Despite the ambiguity surrounding Valentine and his life, the Catholic Church declared him a saint and listed him in Roman Martyrology as being martyred on February 14.
Saint Valentine’s Day embraces a time of year that is historically associated with love and fertility.
The first official Saint Valentine’s Day was declared on 14th of February by Pope Galasius in 496, in memory of a 3rd century martyred priest in Rome. It is not clear which Valentine the Pope was honouring as there were two other martyred priests associated with the 14th February. Still an interesting story.
You can read more about it, here.
Keep your eyes peeled for our Valentine’s deals that will be coming your way next week!
