Valentine's Day :: What REALLY Happened

Valentine's Day facts:

• Saint Valentine's Day was established 496 A.D. by Pope Gelasius as a remembrance of the death and burial of several martyrs named Valentine.
• The Valentines honored on February 14th are: 
• Valentine of Rome (martyred about 269 A.D.)
• Valentine of Terni (martyred 197 A.D. during persecution under Emperor Aurelian.)
• A third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies on a date of February 14th.
• No romantic elements are present in the original Medieval biographies of these martyrs.
• In 1969, the feastday of Saint Valentine was removed from the Roman Catholic calendar. The reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14."

Valentine's Day fiction:

• St Valentine was persecuted and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II. Claudius attempted to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.
• A modern embellishment, widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever, relays that on the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine.
• Valentine is portrayed as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.

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I am not trying to put a damper on anyone's Valentine's Day celebration.

Or to make somber something special or sacred.

In fact, I am making a "romantical" meal today for my beefcake and me.

I have made some goodies and attached some vintage Valentine greeting cards 
to them, and plan on delivering them later today.

I have hung a LOVE banner in my foyer.

I'm even wearing pink and red!

But, while reading the facts and fiction of Valentine's Day,

what I thought we should remember, is that there were, 
a REALLY long time ago, men named Valentine

who, because of their LOVE for their Savior, Christ Jesus,

were jailed and suffered, even unto death for Him.

And, if that's not LOVE, I don't know what is.

~

Facts and fiction were found on Wikipedia.