3rd century Roman priest Valentine was brutally beaten and beheaded after marrying couples in defiance of Emperor Claudius II's ban on the sacrament of marriage on this day in history, February 14, 270 AD
“When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered him killed,” says History.com.
“Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who sentenced him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on or about February 14, 270.”
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The execution of the priest engaged to be married is celebrated throughout the world as Valentine's Day. The celebration of romance has become secularized in recent decades as Valentine's Day.
The holiday's association with roses and romance contrasts sharply with the grisly execution of St. Valentine, or the contemporary fixation with the saint's dismembered body parts.
Saint Valentine was imprisoned for having married the young Serapius, a Christian, and the Roman legionary Sabinus, a pagan. They would actually be two different historical figures, a bishop of Terni and another Roman priest, according to some sources, both executed by beheading on the Via Flaminia. Commemoration February 14. Colored engraving by Diodore Rahoult, Italy, 1886. (Gilardi Photo Library/Getty Images)
Cathedrals in up to five different countries claim to house various remains of Saint Valentine.
That story of his martyrdom for uniting lovers in defiance of the emperor is one of several popular versions of the origin of Valentine's Day, each based on truth but shrouded in two millennia of poorly recorded history.
“The holiday's association with roses and romance stands in stark contrast to the gruesome execution of Valentine's Day.”
There are, for example, two different St. Valentine martyrs who are venerated on February 14. The holiday may be a mix of their two stories of martyrdom.
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“Although much of St. Valentine's life is not reliably known, and it has also not been officially decided whether or not the stories involve two different saints with the same name, there is broad consensus that St. Valentine was martyred and then buried on the Via Flaminia north of Rome,” writes Catholic.org, published by the nonprofit Your Catholic Voice Foundation.
At least one source cites a third Saint Valentine from the same era, martyred in Africa.
The exact date of Valentine's execution is unknown. But it is traditionally celebrated on February 14.
On the left, a Valentine's Day engraving (3rd century AD) created by Cibera in Christian Century, 1853. On the right, a red-themed Valentine's Day dinner table, with a wrapped gift, glasses of full wine and a single red rose. (PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images; iStock)
“In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius marked February 14 as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom,” adds Catholic.org.
The date “is widely recognized as a day of love, devotion and romance.”
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Many scholars attribute its celebration as a day of romance to a poem written in 1375 by the Middle English writer Geoffrey Chaucer, best known as the author of “The Canterbury Tales.”
“For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day/When every foul comes there to choose his mate,” the “father of English literature” wrote in “Parliament of Foules,” which tracks the birds' mating to mid-February.
“Valentine's Day has been celebrated for decades in the majority Hindu nation of India.”
During Chaucer's time in history, courtly love flourished and couples took the occasion to express their love in the form of flowers, sweets and cards, Christianity.com states.
People seen in front of a gift shop decorated with items for sale for Valentine's Day, in Kolkata, India, on February 13, 2023. (Debarchan Chatterjee/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The appeal of Valentine's Day as a day to honor love has spread far beyond the Christian world.
It has been celebrated for decades, for example, in the majority Hindu nation of India.
Government officials have asked citizens to celebrate Valentine's Day by hugging cows “to better promote Hinduism,” according to the Associated Press.
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This year, February 14 has been named “Cow Hug Day” in India.
“Saint Valentine is the patron saint of bride and groom, beekeepers, sweethearts, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, the plague, travelers and young people,” writes Catholic.org.
“It is represented in paintings with birds and roses.”
The skeleton of Saint Valentine lies beneath Whitefriar Church in Dublin. In 1950, a statue and shrine in honor of Saint Valentine were built and placed in the church. People looking for love come to her site all year round and especially every Valentine's Day for help finding that special someone. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
There is another gruesome side to the story.
“Behind the pink facade of Valentine's Day is a mysterious and gruesome story of a decapitation and body parts scattered across Europe,” writes National Geographic.
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“Now, in Dublin, a church claims to display St. Valentine's heart; in a basilica in Rome his supposed skull is displayed; in a convent in Glasgow, his skeleton is in a gilded box; in a basilica in Prague, the bone of his shoulder is an attraction; and in a Church in Madrid his remains are enclosed in glass.”
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