Who Was Saint Valentine, Anyway?

Who was Saint Valentine, Anyway?

     The original man, Valentine, started his career, not as a Christian, but as a pagan priest in ancient Rome.  He stood for a religion whose gods taught dishonesty and immorality.  For example, a minor god named Cupid was pictured shooting arrows of selfish, erotic desires at random into people’s hearts. That’s just one example of the values that were in society.  As a result, families in Rome were often unstable, business dishonest, and government corrupt.

     The head of government at the time, Emperor Claudius II, hoped that his Roman Empire could somehow regain its old glory days, which he knew were slipping away.  One of his attempts was to require by law that everyone worship the twelve most important Roman gods.  He made it a crime to be a Christian, or even to associate with one.  The penalties were loss of jobs, refusal of education for one’s children, prison sentences, and even death.

     That’s when Valentine became important.  Here’s just some of the tradition about him:

     In spite of being a pagan priest, Valentine began to admire the Christians’ clean, unselfish love of God and each other.
    

     He secretly began to worship with them. 

     After a while he was caught and thrown into prison.  While there, Valentine fully embraced Christ and his values.

     His jail sentence was very long, and he became lonely.  He wanted to communicate with the pastors and people in his church, but had no way to do so.  Noticing that some violets were growing just outside the barred window of his cell, he would secretly pick heart-shaped leaves and, with a pin, he’d prick out messages like “Remember your Valentine” and “I love you”.   
     

     Christians would come by at night and bring these heart-felt messages to the people in church. 

     One of the jailers began to respect Valentine.  Seeing that Valentine had wisdom and knowledge, he asked him to be a teacher of his blind daughter, Julia.  Valentine taught her the various school subjects, but most importantly he taught her about the one true God, and what God had done for her through Jesus Christ.  Julia began to understand herself not as just some poor handicapped girl, but as someone who was so loved that God had given his life for her, and whose Spirit could now guide her in a new life.  She trusted Jesus. 

     One day she asked Valentine whether God really hears her prayers, and asked him to pray with her to receive her sight.  They knelt in the prison and prayed together. 
   

     Amazingly, in a little while she could see!

     A long time went by with Valentine in prison.  Because he continued to refuse to deny Christ, he was finally executed.  The evening before his death, he wrote a note to Julia, encouraging her to be more and more in love with God.  He signed it “from your Valentine”.

     He was executed on February 14 about the year 269, near the gate into Rome that Christians later called “Valentine’s Gate”.  They saw it as a symbol of Valentine’s gate out of Rome and into heaven. 

     That’s part of how Saint Valentine’s Day came to be.  It was the church’s celebration of a member’s faithful, clean, moral, agapé love of God and neighbor. The color for St. Valentine’s Day is red because that’s the church’s color to honor its martyrs.

     Compare the original meaning of the day with what it has become.  May we today, who are guided by the same Lord as Valentine knew, embrace Valentine’s holy purity.  May we tell Valentine’s story.  Saint Valentine’s Day is not about fat little Cupid shooting erotic, loving, or any other feelings into people.  It’s about Valentine and God—the one true God who loves us so self-givingly that He united himself with human nature, became the only sacrifice that can remove one’s sin, and opened the way to eternal life with him.  It’s for all who want to embrace Him, his love, and his way of life.

     Rejoice!