Valentines Day

Valentines Day was established during the fifth century A.D. in an attempt by the Catholic Church to dispel a common pagan fertility rite in practice by the Romans since the fourth century B.C. Celebrating a young man?s rite of passage to the god Lupercus, a lottery paired young men and women for the period of one year after which time another lottery would be held.

Church leaders selected Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred for defying an edict issued by Emperor Claudius in 270 A.D. forbidding marriage. Claudius believed that married men made poor soldiers, not wanting to leave their families during times of war. In protest, Valentine invited young lovers to be married in secret. When discovered, Claudius ordered the execution of Valentine, who refused to denounce his beliefs and practices to suit.

Valentine is said to have corresponded with small notes to those in his parish while imprisoned. Traditional beliefs maintain that during this time the bishop Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer, Asterius and through God was able to restore her vision. It is said that the bishops? farewell message to Asterius was Signed From Your Valentine.

In A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius outlawed the Lupercian festival and instituted a lottery whereby both Men and women picked slips of paper and for the upcoming year they were expected to imitate the life of the saint whose name they had drawn. Traditionally, mid-February was a time to meet prospective mates, and Roman youth instituted a custom of offering women they admired handwritten greetings of affection on February 14, which remains with us today.