By: Mariza Liaw and Justin Leung

Valentine’s Day is on February 14, 2021. The stereotypical idea of this special day is for people to celebrate their love for one another by writing love letters to each other with a side of roses and chocolate. But have you ever thought of the origin of Valentine’s Day? Well, you’re in luck because this article is all about the origin of this significant day! St. Valentine has not been acknowledged the past couple of years, so there are multiple variations of how he invented Valentine’s day. We’ll be talking about his well-known story and the variety of other parts to his story. 

St. Valentine lived as a Roman priest and physician, suffering from martyrdom, which is where Christians were persecuted for their beliefs in God back in the 3rd century. St. Valentine was forced to stay in the home of an aristocrat named Asterius. He was sent under house arrest by the Emperor of Rome, Claudius II Gothicus, for disagreeing with the belief that Christianity was bad. 

One day, St. Valentine kept talking about the goodness of Jesus, so Asterius gave him a test of faith. He was testing St. Valentine’s faith to cure his daughter’s blindness. His promise to Valentine was that if he can unblind his daughter, then he’ll do whatever he wanted. When Valentine placed his hand on Asterius’ daughter, she got cured of her blindness. This caused Asterius to break all his idols, fast for three whole days, and get baptized. He became Christian, along with his whole family and 44 more people.

After a couple of months, Valentine was arrested for converting people into Christians, but this didn’t stop him from continuing to do so. In prison, he converted his inmates, married Christian couples, and helped persecuted Christians as well. 

When Claudius found out about this, he instantly developed a tremendous amount of hatred against Valentine and decided to sentence him to death on February 14, just outside of the Flaminian Gate between 269 to 280 AD.

  There is another variation about St. Valentine’s story that is pretty similar to the story you just read. The only difference between this story is that instead of St. Valentine being on house arrest in Asterius’ house, he was in jail curing another inmate’s daughter’s blindness and sending her a note saying “Your Valentine” right before his execution. 

Therefore, the main origin of Valentine’s Day was from the patron saint of love, St. Valentine. It was placed on February 14 because that was when he was executed. This day reminds us of the beauty of love between one another and how you receive love. Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Sources: 

“A Brief History of Valentine’s Day – from the Patron Saint of Epilepsy to Chaucer’s Love Tales.” HistoryExtra, 26 Nov. 2020, www.historyextra.com/period/roman/valentine-day-history-saint-who-real-story-cured/#:~:text=Claudius

%20sent%20Valentine%20into%20house,priest%20with%20arguments%

20against%20Christianity.  

Catholic Online. “St. Valentine – Saints & Angels.” Catholic Online, www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=159.  

“St. Valentine.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Jan. 2021, www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Valentine. 

“Valentine’s Day.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Feb. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day 

“Claudius Gothicus.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Jan. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius_Gothicus#:~:text=Marcus%20

Aurelius%20Claudius%20’Gothicus’%20 

Lisa Bitel Professor of History & Religion. “The ‘Real’ St. Valentine Was No Patron of Love.” The Conversation, 11 Feb. 2021, https://theconversation.com/the-real-st-valentine-was-no-patron-of-love-90518