Valentine's Day: The true story and why we celebrate love on February 14th

Every year, on February 14th, Saint Valentine's Day is celebrated and has been established as the day of lovers, since according to popular tradition, this saint is the patron saint of couples.

But who was Saint Valentine really and how did his identification with the celebration of love come about?

According to tradition, Saint Valentine was a priest in Rome and helped Christians who were victims of persecution in the region.

He lived in the 3rd century and, secretly from the emperor Claudius the Gothic (who was in power at the time), he married Christian couples in love and generally helped Christians, a fact that was considered a crime.

He was arrested for this act and imprisoned, however, the Emperor initially decided to pardon him, until Valentine tried to convert him to Christianity and the Emperor sentenced him to death by stoning. However, Valentine survived the stoning and was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14, 169.

He was martyred and buried in a Christian cemetery on the Via Flaminia near the Ponte Milvio in northern Rome on 14 February, which has been celebrated as Saint Valentine's Day since 496. His remains were kept in the Church and Catacombs of San Valentino, which remained an important place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages, until the transfer of his relics to the church of Santa Prassede during the pontificate of Nicholas IV.

In the Anglican and Lutheran churches, Saint Valentine is celebrated on 14 February. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine is celebrated on 6 July. In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed him from the General Roman Catholic Calendar, leaving his liturgical celebration in local calendars, although the use of pre-1970 calendars is permitted. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes him as a saint, and lists him in the February 14 entry in the Roman Catholic Martyrology.

Another legend, however, says that Valentine was a former bishop of Terni, a city in southern Umbria (as central Italy was then called) and was under house arrest when the judge Asterius, questioning the validity of the Christian religion, put him to a test. He presented him with his blind stepdaughter and told him that if he could make her see, he would have anything he asked for. Indeed, he restored the daughter's sight and the judge, humiliated, asked him what he wanted to do.

Saint Valentine told him to break all the pagan statues he had within three days and then be baptized. The judge did so and then baptized his entire family, however this conversion of the great judge did not please the emperor Claudius, who arrested Saint Valentine and the ending of this legend is exactly the same as the previous one.

Another story has the Saint intervening in a quarrel between lovers in order to bring peace between them. Specifically, the story states that "one day, while the saint was cultivating roses in his garden, he heard a couple arguing very loudly. He cut a rose, went out into the street, approached the couple and begged them to listen to him. He offered them the rose, blessed them and love was restored between them, a little later they returned and asked the saint to bless their marriage."

How the celebration spread

The significance of Saint Valentine's Day today was acquired in the 14th century, when it became associated with the concept of noble love, and the first written mention of him as a saint is found in 1382 in the poem "Parlement of Foules" by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), who is considered "the father of English literature."

"The Parliament of Birds is one of the oldest known Valentine's Day poems," according to English and Comparative Literature professor Theodore Leinbaugh.

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the 699-line poem in 1380 or 1382. According to Henry Kelly, a professor of history and theology at UCLA, "Chaucer's words began the tradition of lovers celebrating this annual holiday."

Every year, on Saint Valentine's Day, birds gather before the goddess of nature to choose their love partners (…for this was Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate…). Geoffrey Chaucer also mentions Saint Valentine four times, while the gathered birds sing to him before making their choice.

The poem is believed to have been originally written for the marriage of King Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia after five years of negotiations.

The Greek version of Valentine's Day

Due to the confusing information, he is not mentioned anywhere in the Orthodox calendar and the Orthodox Church never acknowledged him, while the Catholic Church also demoted his feast to a simple local feast.

Over time, the celebration spread from Italy to Europe and from Britain to America.

Today, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, however, Saint Valentine the Elder is celebrated on July 6 and the Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Terni) is celebrated on July 30.

However, due to the general ambiguity of the life of this particular Saint, it has been established that the name Valentine or Valentine is celebrated on February 14, the most prevalent day of the death of this particular saint, and the flower-decorated relic of Saint Valentine is exhibited in the basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin in Rome.

In Greece, in 1994, the then press representative of the Holy Synod, Yiannis Hatzifotis, proposed that the feast of Saint Hyacinth, which is honored on July 3, be established as Valentine's Day.

Hyacinth was from Caesarea in Cappadocia and served as a chamberlain (chamberlain) to the Roman Emperor Trajan. A trusted man of the emperor, Hyacinth converted to Christianity, provoking the wrath of Trajan, who when he learned of this ordered him to be imprisoned without being given any food, unless he wanted to eat idolatry (meat offered as a sacrifice to an idol). Hyacinth spent forty days like this, without touching the idolatry. On the 41st, however, he gave up his spirit to the Lord, at the age of 20.

Source: newsit