Sunday, February 14, 2010

St. Valentine

According to some quick Internet research, the stories surrounding Saint Valentine have been altered many times throughout history, often to suit the needs of whichever ruler or writer was doing the changing. Apparently, there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine.

One version of the story that links the martyr/saint Valentine to today's traditions of Valentine's Day cards and love notes is that a priest named Valentine was imprisoned for performing marriages. Some stories say it was because he was performing Christian marriages; other versions say it was because he was performing marriages for soldiers, and the Roman emperor didn't want the soldiers to be distracted by married life. Either way, Valentine was in prison, awaiting his execution, which was ordered, according to legend, because he wouldn't convert to paganism and he tried to convert the emperor to Christianity. Before he was beheaded, he performed a miracle, healing the jailer's blind (and maybe deaf) daughter. The night before his execution, so the story goes, he sent a note out to a young girl (maybe the jailer's daughter) and signed it "From your Valentine."

The histories offer a lot of details that somehow connect that story to our modern-day Valentine's, but it is a good excuse for writing a letter! Happy Valentine's Day!

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