Valentine's Day History - Where Did Valentine's Day Come From

Valentine's Day, also known as Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 each year. It began as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and has evolved into a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many parts of the world through later folk traditions.
There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines associated with February 14, including an account of Saint Valentine of Rome's imprisonment in the third century for ministering to Christians persecuted by the Roman Empire.
Saint Valentine, according to legend, restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer.

Numerous later additions to the legend have improved its connection to the theme of love: an 18th-century embellishment claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution; another tradition claims Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry.

The Feast of Saint Valentine was observed on February 14 in the 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary. In the 14th and 15th centuries, when notions of courtly love flourished, the day became associated with romantic love, owing to its association with the "lovebirds" of early spring.
It evolved into an occasion in 18th-century England where couples expressed their love for one another by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Today's Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards since the nineteenth century.

Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers in Italy "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart," as well as to children to prevent epilepsy (known as Saint Valentine's Malady).

Valentine's Day History - Where Did Valentine's Day Come From

1909 Valentine's card

Although it is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church, Saint Valentine's Day is not a public holiday in any country.
Saint Valentine's Day is also observed in many parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church on July 6 in honour of Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and on July 30 in honour of Hieromartyr Valentine, Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).

Valentine's Day List 2023

People nowadays celebrate Valentine's Day for an entire week.
Every year, they begin celebrating on February 7th and end on February 14th.
The entire Valentine's Week is detailed here.

Valentine Day History

Valentine was the name of many early Christian martyrs. The February 14 Valentines are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae). Valentine of Rome was a Roman priest who was martyred in 269 and was added to the calendar of saints in 496 by Pope Gelasius I. He was buried on the Via Flaminia. Saint Valentine's relics were housed in Rome's Church and Catacombs of San Valentino, which "remained an important pilgrim site throughout the Middle Ages until the relics of St. Valentine were transferred to the church of Santa Prassede during the pontificate of Nicholas IV."

Saint Valentine's flower-crowned skull is displayed in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. Other relics can be found at Dublin's Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church.

Valentine of Terni was the bishop of Interamna (now Terni in central Italy) and is said to have been martyred during Emperor Aurelian's persecution in 273. He is buried on the Via Flaminia, but not in the same place as Valentine of Rome. His relics are housed in Terni's Basilica of Saint Valentine (Basilica di San Valentino). According to Jack B. Oruch of the University of Kansas, "abstracts of the two saints' acts were in nearly every church and monastery in Europe."

In various Christian denominations, February 14 is celebrated as St. Valentine's Day; it, for example, has the rank of 'commemoration' in the Anglican Communion's calendar of saints. Furthermore, Saint Valentine's feast day is included in the Lutheran Church's calendar of saints. The feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints for the following reason:

"Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14."