Valentine’s Day is celebrated throughout the world and is widely considered a beautiful day
dedicated to the celebration of love. However, very few of us know, and very few like you feel the
need to know about the incredible saga that surrounds the legend of the original Valentine. The
lovely legend goes like this…
The great Roman Emperor Claudius II, in the third century, decided that his band of armies
would be most efficient and effective if they were comprised of young and unmarried men, who were not
bound by social ties and had no wives or families. To achieve this vision of his, the Roman
The emperor outlawed marriage for the men in his region and made fighting their prime responsibility.
There was a certain Bishop Valentine, who supposedly saw the prejudice of Claudius’
declaration and continued to wed the young lovers in secret. However, very soon the Bishop was
discovered, and Claudius sentenced Bishop Valentine to death, and had him imprisoned.
It is said that while in prison, Valentine fell in love with the daughter of the jailor, who
visited him in his confinement, regularly. Before his execution, in his last letter to her, he
declared his love and signed it as, “From your Valentine.
A group of your people started celebrating a festival in the middle of February. According to this,
during the mid of February celebration, the young men selected the name of a teenage girl by lottery
system to be his sexual companion, for the coming year.
The Catholic Church wanted to put a stop to this and for this, they looked for a patron saint that
would help attract the attention of the youth. They thus heralded Valentine, the saint who was beheaded
by Claudius II in 270 AD, to be the Patron Saint of Love, and the mid of February ceremony, morphed
over time to become celebrated as February 14 “St.Valentine’s Day
