The Darker Side of St. Valentine's Day

What kind of a poster would I be without a little history of one of the "supposed" sweetest holidays in a year?

Here, I bring you a little bit of the darker history of St. Valentine's Day.


Let's start with St. Valentine himself.

Valentine was a priest that lived in Rome in the third century. At that point in time, Rome was being ruled by Emperor Claudius. Many people hated Claudius and his ways, including Valentine.

Claudius had a vision of a great army, and expected men to join and fight, but many men did not want to leave their wives and children behind to go fight a war and possibly never be seen again by their loved ones. As you can imagine, not many men signed up to go to war, and it angered Claudius. It angered him so much that he decided to not allow marriages to take place. The new law made a lot of people mad, including Valentine, and he decided not to follow this law.

He secretly kept on marrying couples in a single room with only the light of a candle, himself, and the bride and groom. They would whisper the vows while keeping their ears open for the footsteps of soldiers.

Obviously, Valentine was caught and thrown in jail and told that for breaking the law, that he would be put to death.

Many people heard of this, and came to the jail and threw flowers and notes up to the window in his cell.

Valentine was secretly allowed to have oneperson visit him; the daughter of the prison guard. She would talk with him for hours on end, and on the day he was to be executed, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty, and it was signed "Love from your Valentine."

On February 14, 269 AD, he was beaten to death with clubs, and had his head cut off.

The pastors in the early Christian Church in Rome wanted to do away with pagan elements in their rituals, so they replaced the names of maidens with those of Saints, and February 14th was chosen for St. Valentine's Day, to honor the man who suffered martyrdom for believing in love.