Valentine's Day: The Real Story

Where it really comes from

Valentine's Day is named for St. Valentine, a Christian priest martyred in Rome in the 200s, around AD 269. Very little is known for certain about his life, and there may have been two martyrs named Valentine who were later blended into one. Pope Gelasius I set February 14 as his feast day in AD 496.

What people say vs. what history shows

Myth: “Valentine's Day is really the Roman fertility festival Lupercalia.”

Likely: strong case, some debate.

The link is weak. Lupercalia was held on February 15, and Gelasius, the same pope who set St. Valentine's feast, wrote a letter opposing it. But no ancient source says Valentine's Day replaced Lupercalia, and nothing connects Valentine to romance until 1,100 years later.

Myth: “Card companies invented Valentine's Day.”

Solid: nearly all historians agree.

The feast is over 1,500 years old. The connection with love first shows up in a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1382, about birds choosing their mates "on Seynt Valentynes day." Cards came along in the 1700s and 1800s.

The customs, honestly

• Love and romance (Folk custom): From medieval poetry, starting with Chaucer.
• Cupid (Folk custom): From Roman mythology, added much later as decoration. Not part of the original feast.
• Cards and gifts (Folk custom): A custom from the 1700s and 1800s.

For kids

Valentine was a man who loved Jesus so much that he wouldn't stop following him, even when it was dangerous. Valentine's Day is a great day to show God's love to others!

Talk about it

Who could you show God's love to this week, someone who might not get a valentine?

Read it in the Bible

1 John 4:10 · 1 John 4:19 · John 15:13 · 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Sources

• Geoffrey Chaucer, Parlement of Foules (c. 1382)
• Pope Gelasius I, Letter against the Lupercalia (late 400s)