As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite to passage to the God
Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random
by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration
of the year, after which another lottery was staged https://experience.tripster.ru/tours/russia/kaliningradskaya_oblast/svetlogorsk/. After eight hundred years
of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice...
They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some two hundred
years earlier.
According to church tradition St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D. At that time
the Roman Emperor Claudius-II who had issued an edict forbidding marriage. This
was around when the heyday of Roman empire had almost come to an end. Lack of
quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. Learning declined, taxation
increased, and trade slumped to a low, precarious level. And the Gauls, Slavs,
Huns, Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asian increased their pressure
on the empire's boundaries. The empire was grown too large to be shielded from
external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Thus more of capable
men were required to be recruited as soldiers and officers. When Claudius became
the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their
families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. So to assure quality soldiers,
he banned marriage.
Valentine, a bishop , seeing the trauma of young lovers, met them in a secret
place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this
"friend of lovers," and had him arrested. The emperor, impressed with
the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman
gods, to save him from certain execution. Valentine refused to recognize Roman
Gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully.
On February 24, 270, Valentine was executed.
While Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact with his
jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius requested him to
heal his daughter. Through his faith he miraculously restored the sight of Asterius'
daughter. Just before his execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailor,
and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase
that lived ever after.
Valentine thus become a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival.
The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to
court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards
acquired St.Valentine's name.
The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world. One of the
earliest card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while
he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the British
Museum.
