Who was St. Valentine? The Story Behind the Holiday of Love -

By Maisy Sullivan

Our beloved Valentine’s Day has a much more complex backstory than the familiar romantic gestures of giving roses to a lover or sealing a note with a kiss. Though this has become the holiday’s norm, most celebrants are aware that a certain St. Valentine has inspired such traditions.

A well-known fact about St. Valentine is that he is the patron saint of lovers, among other things like beekeepers and epileptics. What most people do not know is that his history is not entirely certain. He may have been based on two or more people who, over time, merged together as a conglomerate saint to represent the current figure we think of today.

One story illustrates St. Valentine as a Roman priest in the third century and another as a bishop in a different part of Italy. In both stories, he was martyred for his devotion to the faith.

The most popular account of St. Valentine’s legacy is that he was imprisoned for blessing marriages when Emperor Claudius II had banned them. In imprisonment, he befriended the daughter of his captor. He would teach her and read to her because she was blind, all the while being there as a sort of sponsor. Before St. Valentine was put to death, he sent out the first “Valentine note” to the blind girl.

The legend continues that, supposedly, St. Valentine’s good faith in God and devotion to the girl cured her blindness; thus, she was able to read his note, which was signed, “From your Valentine.” This is where the underlying tradition of our modern holiday originates from.

February 14th is St. Valentine’s feast day, the anniversary of his martyrdom. Perhaps couples initially celebrated it in memory of the good he did in sanctifying their marriages when no one else would; perhaps they simply did not think he deserved to die and wanted to pay homage to him. Regardless of the reason why Valentine’s Day was originally celebrated, there was always a semblance of love in what St. Valentine did.

Valentine’s Day was not romanticized until the 1400s, centuries after St. Valentine’s death. It is thought that the tradition of Valentine’s Day being a day for lovers comes from Medieval author Geoffrey Chaucer in his work Parliament of Fowls.

“It describes a group of birds which gather together in the early spring – on ‘seynt valentynes day’ – to choose their mates for the year. It seems that the poem sparked a tradition. In 1477, Margery Brews, a Norfolk woman, wrote a letter to her cousin John Paston, calling him ‘my right well beloved Valentine’. It is the earliest known letter of its kind.” the text explains.

It would seem that after 1477, Valentine’s Day became all about gifting an abundance of love in heartfelt little notes.

The question still remains: How did Valentine’s Day become so commercialized? It is difficult to pinpoint any singular reason why we celebrate monetized love. It seems like a pattern that all holidays become commercialized over time.

The incentives for Christmas, Easter, and, in this case, Valentine’s Day, are not specifically money. Without getting too deep into economics and politics, we do live in a capitalistic society. It just necessarily follows that people will buy things to celebrate any holiday. Giving gifts is not particularly a negative aspect of celebrating anything.

The commercialization of February 14th is merely a means of showing love and care for significant others and people we care about. Sure, it seems like a waste to buy paper that will be torn and disposed of, just to wrap gifts that will not get everyday use: flowers, chocolates, stuffed animals. However, small tokens of love will always make the recipient smile. So, is it such a bad thing?

If people are honoring Jesus’ birth on Christmas, or commemorating His rising from the dead on Easter, who’s to say that buying gifts and decorations alongside the celebration is bad? The same goes for Valentine’s Day. This is not to say we need to memorize the whole life story of St. Valentine, but if we are praising love through gifts and kisses, then so be it.

St. Valentine can inspire us in a myriad of ways. Regardless of whether or not his acts were mythical or parts of his story were lost in time, the legends themselves depict love and faith in God. Showing others the care we hold in our hearts is a motive that no one can reject.