Valentinus of Rome
Valentine’s Day, known as La Saint-Valentin in French, is celebrated worldwide on February 14th. It is, of course, the celebration of love for millions of people who exchange gifts and tender gestures with their loved ones.
Although this day is widely observed by the Church of Rome, Anglicans, and Lutherans as the feast of Saint Valentine, its origins can be traced back to ancient pagan customs.
Valentinus was a Christian martyr who lived in Rome in the 3rd century AD. He was imprisoned for his acts of compassion and resistance to persecution, and became famous for secretly helping Christians escape oppression and for performing clandestine marriages for soldiers, as all Christian sacraments, including marriage ceremonies, were forbidden by the Roman Empire. At that time, it was indeed forbidden for Roman soldiers to marry, as Emperor Claudius believed that single men were more formidable warriors. Despite everything, Valentinus continued to defy the oppressive regime and to defend the sacred nature of love and commitment.
Heart, the symbol of Love
According to legend, Valentinus was the first to use the iconic symbol of the heart, a gesture of love and commitment. Newlyweds indeed received a piece of parchment, meticulously cut into the shape of a heart and bearing the sacred vows of their union. Valentinus is also credited with starting the tradition of sending greeting cards.
Legend also recounts that Valentinus performed a miracle by healing his jailer’s blind daughter, as he had developed romantic feelings for the young woman, who was now able to see and read. Moved by this profound manifestation of divine grace, the jailer and his entire family converted to Christianity.
Before his impending execution on February 14th, he is said to have sent her a heartfelt farewell message, signed “From your Valentine,” a sentiment that would become legendary and started the tradition of sending greeting cards.
Pagan festivals of fertility and Christian traditions
Ancient rites and customs, deeply rooted in society and linked to fertility and love, proved so difficult for the early Church to eradicate. It therefore strategically integrated its own celebrations with existing pagan festivals, gradually harmonizing them with Christian traditions. It is no coincidence, then, that Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14th, a date associated since the 5th century with the pagan rituals of ancient Greece and Rome.
In the Attic Calendar (the calendar used in Attica, that is, in ancient Athens), the month from mid-January to mid-February was called Gamelion, a month dedicated to celebrating fertility and love. This festival honoured the sacred union of Zeus, father of gods and men, and Hera, goddess of marriage and women.
Similarly, the Romans celebrated their Lupercalia, a pastoral and fertility festival, from February 13th to 15th. This festival, also called Februa, aimed to ward off evil spirits and promote health and fertility. Named after the god Lupercus, deity of shepherds, this celebration involved naked young men, dressed in goatskins symbolizing fertility, who ritually whipped young women with goatskins, a ritual believed to initiate fertility. Lupercus was often associated with Faunus, the horned god of forests, plains, and fields, who made cattle fertile. His Greek equivalent was Pan.
While the Lupercalia was a typically Roman festival, the festival of Juno Februa, in honour of Juno the Purifier or the Chaste, was celebrated in various regions on February 13 and 14.
Valentine’s Day in the Middle-Ages
The association of Valentine’s Day with courtly love developed in the Middle Ages, giving the holiday a romantic dimension. The famous poet Geoffrey Chaucer contributed to this idealization with his poem “Parlement of Fowls,”, written around 1381, where he describes Valentine’s Day as the time when birds come to choose their partners: “For it was Valentine’s Day, when every bird came to choose its mate.”
During this period, Valentine’s Day also acquired a legal dimension with the creation of a High Court of Love in Paris in 1400. This court was responsible for ruling on matters of love and relationships, including marriage contracts, divorces, cases of infidelity, and domestic violence. It became a symbol of the importance given to matters of the heart in the Middle Ages.
In 1415, in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, the French Duke Charles of Orléans contributed to the romantic tradition of Valentine’s Day by writing a touching letter to his beloved from the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned after the Battle of Agincourt. Despite his captivity, this letter illustrated the enduring power of love and the sentimentality associated with Valentine’s Day at that time.
From the tragic love story of Valentinus, the Renaissance retained only the beauty of love and transformed Cupid, the mischievous Roman god of love, into a symbol of romantic love through literature and art, and associated him with the traditions of Valentine’s Day.
From Shakespeare to modern era
Even Shakespeare alluded to Valentine’s Day in his Hamlet, when Ophelia laments:
“To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s Day,
All in the morning bedtime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine”
At the end of the 18th century, the appearance of printed greeting cards, adorned with charming poems and drawings, significantly increased the popularity of Valentine’s Day. The tradition of exchanging these tokens of love has continued to grow and evolve over the centuries.
In 1913, the tradition took a commercial turn when Hallmark produced its first Valentine’s Day card! Despite the rise of the internet and digital communications, the tradition of sending physical Valentine’s Day cards remains strong. Many still value the personal and tangible nature of a handwritten card, which carries a stronger emotional weight than an email.
Paris, often called the “City of Love,” has become a popular destination for couples celebrating Valentine’s Day and sealing their eternal love by attaching love locks to the city’s many bridges.
And if you like beautiful love stories, go to Père-Lachaise Cemetery where you will find the tomb of Héloïse and Abélard, the most famous lovers of all time.
