The bloody origin of the romantic Saint Valentine’s day
Love is in the air! Valentine’s day is around the corner, but we must wonder, why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day? There must be some original reason that inspired this romantic day. The history of Valentine’s Day is admittedly unclear, but there is one thing that is certain, it is rooted in the historical celebration of the feast of Saint Valentine.
Who is Saint Valentine?
We start off with the source of Valentine’s Day, which is Saint Valentine himself. There are various stories, even a belief that there might have been two or three men named Valentine, and that they may have possibly been the same man. Referring to Lives of the Saints by Fr. Alban Butler, we read that Saint Valentine was a priest and martyr who died for the Faith. He worked with St. Marius and his family to assist the martyrs under the persecution of Claudius II. Eventually, Valentine was apprehended and sent to the prefect of Rome. The prefect attempted to have Valentine renounce his faith but found this to have no effect, leading to Valentine being beaten by clubs and ultimately beheaded on February 14th around the year 270AD.1 While the history of the person of Saint Valentine is cloudy, I have found this information in multiple sources…so it must have some merit to it.
In addition to this, there are various stories about Saint Valentine. It is believed that Claudius II had Valentine debate his own intellectuals on the topic of the validity of Christianity. Valentine proved himself to very successful in this topic, leading to his martyrdom.2
There is more to say about the life of Saint Valentine, which will be uncovered as we discover the origins of certain Valentine’s Day traditions.
How did this day become about love?
The feast of Saint Valentine became a day of love and marriage through a few possible strings of history. The first is that Saint Valentine secretly married Christian couples.3 The second is that around the mid-14th century, it was noticed that the birds would mate on February 14th and this observation led to a belief that this was associated with the feast of the day, the feast of Saint Valentine.4 The third is that there was a custom in the Roman pagan religion that honored the roman goddess Juno. Men would choose the name of a woman they sought to marry and would court her for a year. This feast was on February 15th. In order to combat this within the Catholic Church, families who arranged marriages, would announce these marriages the day before, which was February 14th,the feast of Saint Valentine.5.
Valentine’s cards
It is believed that before his death, Saint Valentine sent letters to his friends, many of which were couples he had secretly married, urging them to pray for him and all Christians in Rome. He closed his letters with the words “Remember your Valentine.”6 There is another part of this story that he left a letter for a little girl that was signed “your valentine”7 Thus, this became the source of tradition for Valentine’s Day cards, specifically with people referring to themselves as someone else’s “valentine”
Chocolates and flowers
This celebration of romance could not be limited to just cards. Chocolates became custom due to the belief that they were an aphrodisiac. Flowers, specifically red roses, have their origin in the pagan mythology of Aphrodite/Venus, the goddess of love and mother of Cupid, and her favorite flower was the rose.
Cupid
Lastly, how did Cupid become part of Valentine’s Day? Cupid has a long history crossing between the Greek and Roman pagan religions, but I will keep it short. The pagan religious development of Cupid caused him to go from an evil god intervening with people by making them forcibly fall in love with others, to him being pictured as a cherub bringing people together romantically. The blend of Saint Valentine’s history and traditions with the physically close Roman paganism, as previously detailed, caused for Cupid to become iconic with the celebrations on Valentine’s Day. This climaxed particularly when Hallmark, the greeting card company, introduced valentine’s day cards in 1916. Hallmark incorporated Cupid imagery throughout their Valentine’s Day cards cementing his imagery into the feast of this great Christian martyr.8
A proper way to celebrate
The feast of Saint Valentine is a great time to remember the greatest commandment Jesus Christ gave His disciples, “love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34). This love is a supernatural gift from God. We call it charity. Charity is expressed by self-donative acts of love. Saint Valentine serves as a beautiful example of this commandment. Saint Valentine risked his life to bring couples together under the Sacrament of matrimony, a sacrament which introduces God’s grace into the marriage covenant so we may better love one another as God loves us. Saint Valentine expressed his deep love of God by dying for the faith, a love that goes beyond fleeting and temporal feelings, a sacrificial love rooted in the love of God, the God Who “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Valentine’s day is definitely a day to celebrate love, the love of God. That love isn’t expressed in roses, chocolates, and expensive dinners; that love is a supernatural love, a love of true self donative charity, a love that is found in the light of Christ, a love that can be expressed to your significant other, your family, and your friends.
We can use the feast of Saint Valentine as an opportunity to grow in love, to grow in charity, by being charitable to others, praying for our loved ones, and lovingly participating in the mysteries of Jesus Christ. I pray that you will have a happy and spiritually fruitful Saint Valentine’s Day.
References
1 Butler, Fr. Alban. 2012. Lives of the Saints. Gastonia: TAN Books.pg75
2 Mercy, Divine.. 2017. “Who was St. Valentine?” YouTube. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weYqdQV38Fg
3 Baye, Peter. n.d. “The Story of St. Valentine.” King of Kings. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.kingofkings.org/2024/02/07/the-story-of-saint-valentine/.
4 Akin, Jimmy. n.d. “Who was Saint Valentine, and how did his feast day of February 14 come to be regarded as a day for romance?” Catholic Answers. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.catholic.com/qa/who-was-st-valentine-and-how-did-his-feast-day-of-february-14-come-to-be-regarded-as-a-day-for.
5 Mercy, Divine.. 2017. “Who was St. Valentine?” YouTube. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weYqdQV38Fg
6 Baye, Peter. n.d. “The Story of St. Valentine.” King of Kings. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.kingofkings.org/2024/02/07/the-story-of-saint-valentine/.
7 Mercy, Divine. 2024. “Ash Wednesday & St. Valentine – Living Divine Mercy TV Show (EWTN) Ep. 127 with Fr. Chris Alar, MIC.” YouTube. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14aL0Ca_hgY.
82019. “Cherubic Cupid Is Everywhere on Valentine’s Day. Here’s Why That Famous Embodiment of Desire Is a Child.” TIME. February 13. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://time.com/5516579/history-cupid-valentines-day/.
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