The New Murrey and Blue blog

St Valentine’s Day has been celebrated on February 14th since the 6th century, but who was St. Valentine and why is his saint’s day associated with love?

The Church actually recognizes three Valentines in its list of saints. Each St. Valentine had his feast day on February 14.

So he could have been Valentine, a priest who illegally married Roman men so that they could avoid military service (soldiers had to remain single). Emperor Claudius II needed more military support and so, legend has it that he executed Valentine for disobeying his edict.

Or could he have been a Christian, Valentine, who was persecuted and imprisoned for his faith? This Valentine was supposed to have fallen in love with his jailer’s daughter and sent her a love note on his execution day, signed, “From your Valentine”.

Or was it Valentinus, the Bishop of Terni who, tradition says, cured a girl of her blindness by touching her eyes? This miracle impressed important people and resulted in them converting. He baptized over forty people. However, his continual illegal preaching resulted in him being sent to Rome, where Claudius II was angered by his constant attempts to convert him, and had him beheaded. Valentinus is said to have been buried on February 14th on the Via Flamina.

These three separate stories have even been combined, saying that he was a Roman priest who defied Emperor Claudius II, (who had banned marriage so men would be more willing to enlist as soldiers), by continuing to marry people in secret. So, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death for his defiance, but he befriended his jailor, who had a blind daughter, whom Valentine cured. He then fell in love with her and wrote her ‘the first Valentine’ on the day of his execution, signing it “From your Valentine.”

It was not until the 14th century, however, that St Valentine’s day became more associated with love and romance, due to the famous writer (and relative of Richard III), Geoffrey Chaucer, who linked St Valentine’s Day with romance. See the link below for more on this.

Previous post about Chaucer and St Valentine’s Day

In the Medieval period, people throughout Europe believed that birds mated on February 14. This belief, that birds chose their mates on St. Valentine’s Day, led to the idea that boys and girls should do the same.
Men would write amorous addresses to their lady love.

One legend said that a young lady was supposed to marry the first male that she met on St. Valentine’s Day.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. This is where we get the expression ‘to wear your heart on your sleeve’, meaning you are making it obvious how you feel.

Another Medieval ritual involved girls eating unusual foods on St Valentine’s Day to make them dream of their future husband.

Other sayings popular at the time were:
• If you see a bluebird on Valentine’s Day, you will marry a happy man
• If you see a goldfinch, you will marry a wealthy man
• If you see a sparrow, you will marry a poor man
• If you find a glove on the road on Valentine’s Day, your future beloved will have the other missing glove

I didn’t know any of this when I was ‘courting’, but I did come across a spell of sorts, which said:

If you’re shelling peas, leave a pod somewhere where your love will find it and if he returns it to you, he will have no objection to marriage.

I tried it and he threw the pod at me, but it worked! We did get married and are still married nearly 45 years later!

Top image credit: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=554498&picture=saint-valentines-day-greeting-card