Who Is St Valentine?

Who is Saint Valentine?

February 14th is the day we celebrate Saint Valentine's Day. We give flowers, cards and candy to those we love. We do this in honor of Saint Valentine. But who is St. Valentine?

Legend has it that Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 AD.

The church was enduring great persecution at that time. His ministry was to help the Christians to escape this persecution, and to provide them the sacraments, such as marriage, which was outlawed by the Roman Empire at that time by Claudius II.

Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those that were married.

With this thought in mind he outlawed marriage for young men in hopes of building a stronger military base.

Supposedly, Valentine, decided this decree just wasn't fair and chose to marry young couples secretly.

When Emperor Claudius II found out about Valentine's actions he had him put to death.

Another Valentine character is Cupid (in Latin it means "desire").

Cupid is the Roman God of Love and the son of Venus. He is a small, winged boy, blindfolded, carrying bow and arrows.

Cupid is often said to be a mischievous boy who goes around wounding both Gods and humans with his arrows, causing them to fall in love. He is also portrayed as a young man

 

with his beloved Psyche, with Venus or with a small group of winged infants. Some traditions say that he was born from a silver egg.