Contrary to the bubbly pink hearts and love confessions of modern day celebrations, Valentine’s Day wasn’t always a raging romantic holiday as you might think it was. In fact, it wasn’t a holiday at all, until one day a saint rebelled, and sparked a revolution unlike any other. The story of St. Valentine, taken from records constructed by monks, goes like this:
In early Rome, under the rule of Emperor Claudius Gothicus in 270 A.D., there lived a saint by the name of Valentine. He was taken into custody by Gothicus and placed under the care of an aristocrat named Asterius. While under his care, Valentine told stories of Christ, and the ways he could lead pagans to truth and salvation. Asterius, fed up with Valentine’s nonsense, challenged St. Valentine; if he could heal Asterius’s blind daughter, then Asterius and his entire family would convert to Christianity. Valentine placed his hand over the girls eyes and chanted a prayer. When he took his hand away, the girl could see, and Asterius was delighted. He and his family were baptized, but when Emperor Gothicus found out, he had St. Valentine beheaded as a lesson.
That is how the legend goes, anyway. There is another tale of a saint named Valentinus, who lived in Italy, healed a boy, and was also beheaded by the emperor. The story is very similar, and historians agree that the two tales are one in the same.
Another legend behind the origin of Valentine’s Day is the ancient pagan festival, Lupercalia. For 1200 years, Lupercalia was held in Rome on the 13th-15th of February every year as a celebration of fertility.
The festival was an important event for Romans. A bloody ritual was always held, performed by Roman priests, in which a goat and a dog were sacrificed. Men would then cut strips of hide off the animals and run the streets, slapping women with the strips. Women would also line up for whippings; they believed at the time that it would make them more fertile and womanly. Names of women were thrown in a pot, and whatever name was drawn was that man’s partner for the festival.
After the death of Caesar in 44 B.C, the festival lost its original vigor; however, it was still celebrated to extents until the late fifth century, when Pope Gelasius I forbade the ancient festival altogether due to its pagan origins.
It is rumored Gelasius attempted to replace Lupercalia with a St. Valentine’s Day-a day to honor the martyrdom of St. Valentine. However, there is no strong proof in the singular way that Valentine’s Day came to be.
Named after a rebellious saint and a pagan party, Valentine’s Day proves to have an intriguing dark side.
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