February 14 is the day when candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones in the name of St. Valentine, a legendary priest who served during the third century in Rome. Some folks even propose or get married on Valentine's Day.
When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men in order to ensure his supply of soldiers.
A priest named Valentine or Valintinus, it is said, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When word of Valentine's matrimonies leaked out, Claudius ordered that he be put to death on February 14, 269 A.D.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
One legend also suggests that St. Valentine cured his jailer's blind daughter, who then fell in love with him. On the eve of his beheading February 14, he is said to have written her a final letter signed "From your Valentine."
Whatever the truth may be, Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honor St. Valentine in 496 A.D. and, gradually, February 14 has became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine the patron saint of lovers.
The Catholic Church reversed its recognition of the saint's day in 1969 when church leaders acknowledged confusion over which martyred priest in ancient Rome was the real St. Valentine.
Valentines
Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of early Christian saints named Valentine. It was first associated with romantic love by Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when courtly love flourished.
Sending valentines (gifts or greetings) to your sweetheart became a popular custom sometime in the eary 1600s;
By the 18th century in England, Valentine's Day had evolved into a day when lovers sent greeting cards, candy, and flowers to express their love for each other.
The first commercial cards appeared around 1800 and were usually sent anonymously. And as early as 1822, an English official reported having to hire extra postal workers on this day.
Since the 19th century, store-bought cards replaced most handwritten valentines.
Valentine symbols today include heart shapes, doves, and Cupid figures.
Valentine Romance
The first literary association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer:
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.
The poem was composed in honor of the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.
Most readers of the poem incorrectly assume that Chaucer is referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day. Mid-February, however, is an unlikely time for birds to be mating in England.
It is more likely that he is referring to May 2, the liturgical calendar's saints' day for Valentine of Genoa, an early bishop who died around AD 307.