St. Valentine Has His Day

I never really knew the story of St. Valentine and how we came to send Valentine's Day cards to those we like and love, adore and admire. Our church pastor enlightened us yesterday and I found it to be interesting and as heart-warming as a Valentine itself. Please note, however, much of this is akin to legend, but the possibility exists that it may be true.

St. Valentine did exist - several historical Valentines are known, in fact - and in particular, the hero of our story lived during the third century, A.D. The story has it that St. Valentine was queried by Roman emperor Claudius as to whether he believed in God. He answered that he did, and Claudius tried to persuade him to convert to paganism and comply with the order to not perform any marriages.

Valentine continued to perform many weddings in secret, which eventually led to his imprisonment. Legend has it that Valentine sent letters of encouragement to various people while imprisoned, and the jailer's daughter was his partner in crime by helping smuggle them out. He later was executed for his beliefs and his actions.


Whether our practice of sending Valentines to one another truly was born of this depends on what you want to believe. And surely Hallmark had a hand in it all, but it still is an endearing holiday, whether you have a true sweetheart or not. Do we not all have friends? Special family members? They can be our Valentines, too!

Happy Valentine's Day!