Valentines Day means Romance

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Who was Valentine? This question is not an easy one to answer. Depending on which book you read you might find one author making the case that there was two different men named Valentine whose lives were mixed together to form one legend, and another arguing that two different legends arose about the same man. Even still another author might say that there were three men named Valentine.

Here are several synopsis or different stories...

Valentine was a Roman priest who was martyred during the persecution of Claudius the Goth around A.D. 269 or 270 and buried on the Flaminian Way.

Valentine was a bishop of Terni martyred in Rome.

Valentine as a young, though unsaved helped Christians during a time of persecution. He was caught and put in jail, became a believer there and was clubbed to death for this on February 14, 269. While in prison he is said to have sent messages to friends saying, "Remember your Valentine" and "I love you".

In one story it is said that Valentine was a priest that secretly married couples, defying the law of Emperor Claudius which temporarily forbid marriages.

Valentine was imprisoned for refusing to worship pagan gods. Making friends with the jailers daughter, he is said to have cured her through prayer, and on the date of his execution (Feb. 14th) he is said to written her a not signed "Your Valentine".

The one thing we can be sure of is that at least one person by the name of Valentine did live and that he was killed for being a Christian. Beyond this we are on shaky ground.

The 14th of February was set apart as the special day to remember Saint Valentine. This was one day before the Roman feast of Lupercalia, a pagan love festival. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius changed Lupercalia from the 15th to the 14th to try and stop the pagan celebration. The church realized that there was nothing wrong with celebrating love, only the pagan elements insulted God. Lupercalia was done away with, but it had left it's mark on Saint Valentine's Day. Valentine had become known as the patron of lovers.

Part of the Roman festival of Lupercalia was the putting of girl's names in a box and letting the boys draw them out. These couples were supposedly paired off for the whole year. A similar practice was began in the fourteenth century. A sweetheart was chosen for a day by lot. This was done to correspond with the belief that the springtime mating of birds took place on Valentine's Day. Messages sent between these randomly chosen pair were a forerunner of the modern Valentine's Day Card. Specially printed card for Valentine's were just becoming common by the 1780's. They were a big hit in Germany where they were called Freundschaftkarten, or "friendship cards."

So, should continue to celebrate Valentines Day? Absolutely. Though we're not quite sure who Valentine was, we certainly know that God approves of love, even romantic love. Let's just make sure that Valentine's Day is an extra special day to display even more love than usual to those around us, and not our only day show love this year.

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