Valentines Day Is Shrouded In Mystery

Valentines Day holds a special place in our lives. It’s when we show our affection for our loved ones, especially that special girl or boy, man or woman in our lives. But even though Valentines Day is shrouded in Mystery, it marks the beginning of a wonderful journey for me as that’s the day I asked my soulmate Liz to be my steady girl. Valentines Day was the day I chose because of the significance of what the day stood for, to me. I can remember like it was yesterday leaning against her locker in the hallway nervously asking her to “go steady” with me. I was overwhelmed with happiness when she said yes. Then, as we kissed our biology teacher Ms. Lewis grabbed us and led us to the principals’ office as kissing in the hall was strictly forbidden. We were sentenced to detention for kissing but detention hall is where we first met so we didn’t mind. Our meeting was fate and our romance was truly “love at first sight.” Liz passed away two years ago, but this Valentines Day will mark 50 years since that wonderful day.

Who In The Heck Is St. Valentine?

February has long been observed as the month of love and romance. Valentine’s day as we know it dates back to ancient Rome and early Christianity. As usual, I wondered who this St. Valentine person was and why he got the title? Then I quickly found out why this particular Saint is shrouded in mystery. It’s because there are 3 people vying for the title.

The Tale of Three Valentines

There was a Priest in the 3rd century during the Emporer Claudius II rule. This warring Emporer decided single men made better soldiers so he outlawed marriage. Priest Valentine secretly continued performing marriage ceremonies so the Emporer had him beheaded…Others think it was The Bishop of Turni who was the true St. Valentine. The Emporer Claudius beheaded him too. ..But here’s my choice: There was a Valentine that helped Christians escape harsh Roman prisons and while in prison himself fell in love, possibly with a jailer’s daughter and sent the first Valentine to her, signed from “your Valentine.” That man’s got to be the real St. Valentine!!

The Pagan Valentines’ Day

This is where the history of Valentine’s Day gets a little weird. The Romans celebrated Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to the Roman God of agriculture Faunus and to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The members of Luperci (a Priesthood order) gathered at a cave where a she-wolf had raised the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. They sacrificed a goat and a dog, soaked the hides in the blood, and rubbed it against the women to make them fertile. All the young women that evening placed their names in an urn, the men drew a name, and that’s who they spent the evening with, “sometimes” they would later marry. I like the newer version of St. Valentines Day

• Let all that you do be done in love. ~ 1 Corinthians 16:14
   
• Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ~ 1 John 4:8

https://www.history.com/