Real Valentines

Although Valentine's Day has become a highly commercialized ordeal, a holiday that often promotes cheap "love", February 14 hasn't always been a day of chocolate, flowers, and sappy greeting cards. To some Valentine's Day is a day to truly express your love for people, whether it be a single person or a group of people. To others, however, it is a fake, industry-created holiday designed only to make people feel bad about themselves. I'm not here to bash Valentine's Day or anything, even though it isn't necessarily my favorite. I'm here to share the story of Valentine's Day.

You probably know Valentine's Day is named after a guy called Valentine. There are many stories as to which dude-whose-name-was-Valentine our modern Valentine's Day was named after, but the most popular story is one about a particular Saint Valentine. Here's the deal...

There was this really horrible emperor called Claudius II. For some reason he was involving Rome in a bunch of bloody, unpopular, and most likely unnecessary wars. For apparent reasons, he was called Claudius the Cruel. Now obviously all the Roman soldiers would rather stay with their wives and families than go into violent, impertinent wars. So Claudius the Cruel decided the best way to get his soldiers to cooperate, was to outlaw marriage and courting. Completely. Yea, I think it was an unreasonable move, too. So here comes our protagonist, Valentine! St. Valentine and this other guy named St. Marius were priests who believe Claudius' abolishment of marriage was unfair. So St. Valentine and St. Marius took action. Pretty heroic, huh? They aided the Christians being persecuted, and married couples (well, they didn't like, actually MARRY the couples, they oversaw and officiated the ceremonies and everything. You know what I mean), secretly of course because marriage was obviously illegal. Unfortunately, St. Valentine was apprehended and sentenced to a humiliating beating and then death for his good deeds. Except there was a catch. If St. Valentine would renounce his actions and his Christian faith, then he would be free to go. But St. Valentine stood firm in his belief and was martyred on February 14th, the day of a pagan Roman festival that celebrated Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. In an attempt to turn the Romans away from their pagan rituals and also in attempts to recognize the martyred St. Valentine and his good deeds, members of the church tried to popularize February 14th, the festival for Juno, as a celebration of St. Valentine's life and ministry.

The rest is fairly simple. February 14th turned into a celebration of Valentine's life, then into a celebration of the marriages St. Valentine helped officiate, then turned into a celebration of love. From there flower, candy, and greeting card markets noticed flowers, candy, and greeting cards were popular on Valentine's day, and cashed in and started advertising. So there you have it.The story of a heroic martyr was trivialized to a day for greeting cards. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with greeting cards, it's just a little disappointing for lust, with a saint's name stapled to it, to be promoted in every February advertisement.

I hope I didn't come across with negativity toward the day. I don't mean to be negative at all! Valentine's Day can be a very legitimate celebration if you are celebrating with genuine love. However, as you celebrate February 14th in whatever way you do, I encourage you to remember the name sake of this holiday. A man who believed in the One True God and His perfect Love. St. Valentine was a man who was willing to give up his life for his True Love, and I pray we are inspired to be willing to do the same.