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As with most holidays Valentine’s Day had a disputed origin. Many are widely attributed to St. Valentine a priest in Rome around 270 AD. He later became a saint and many attribute Valentines day to him. However there were actually three saint Valentines. One the afore mentioned priest in Rome. The second was a bishop in Terni. Little is know about the third other then the fact that he died in Africa. The strange things about the three is that all of them were martyred on February 14th.
There are no true archives relating to this event making the true history of Valentine’s Day difficult to trace. Also there are different versions of the history, these versions defined by religion. There is a Catholic version and a Protestant version making the history even more difficult to trace.
Both religions do agree on one thing though. That being that Valentine was a bishop who held secret marriage ceremonies of Roman soldiers in opposition to emperor Claudius II who had prohibited the marriage of young men in his army. His feeling being that marriage made his men weak and that they would become more emotionally attached to their families rather then to the empire of Rome.
The History of Valentines Day will be continued in later postings by Bob’s Gift Baskets.
