Valentines Day – A Guide for Lovers

“Will you be my valentine?” – that is the question men and women have asked each other for ages. But when and how did it all start? With all the excitement visiting the stores, looking for just the right gift for your partner, did you ever ask yourself what you were doing? Who first did this and why?

Jeez, who cares about boring old history? You broke with it when you got out of school. Isn't it much more fun just to go shop hunting?

Except it isn't all that boring at all, rather kind of interesting. Here, check this out.

As you may know, people aren't normally declared saints unless they were crucified, burnt at the stake, drawn apart by wild horses, or killed in some other horrible way. The problem with St.Valentine is, there were quite a few early Christians by that name who came to a bad end. No one knows which of them is the actual patron saint of this day for lovers. Many of them have perfectly valid claims to the title, too.

There was this bishop in ancient Rome called Valentinius who used to teach his flock that along with reading the Bible and being generally pious, one ought to enjoy good love and sex to appreciate the true spirit of Christianity! A true candidate for the patron saint's position, wouldn't you say?

But that isn't the only one. Another poor fellow, also called Valentine, was in prison, and going to be killed in a month's time. His crime was that he was a Christian. I'm sure you know that was a crime in ancient Rome.

Now if you ever find yourself in such a position, what are you likely to do? Weep your heart out trying to prove your innocence? Ask the guards to take you to their leader so that you can try and bribe him? Go on a hunger strike? Cry for mummy? Well, that's why you aren't a saint, and Valentine was.

Here's what he did. Instead of wasting time trying to avoid a certain and painful death, he kept writing love letters to the jailer's beautiful young daughter. And he signed them “From your Valentine”. Sounds familiar?

Of course, when the girl's father found out what was happening, he didn't wait for the rest of the month and finished his prospective son-in-law the very next day. The Christians wasted no time in making him a saint. And rightly done too.

Then again there was this emperor called Claudius in Rome who thought sex was bad for soldiers, and made them weak. I think he must have lacked enough personal experience, to have a ridiculous idea like that. Whatever. What matters is, in order to make his army stronger he created this law that no soldier could marry. The foolish fellow must have believed that you needed to be married to have sex.

And have sex they did. But the problem is, some of the soldiers also wanted to get married. And help was at hand. There was this young Christian priest in the area who was willing to help them. He visited their camps secretly and performed marriage rituals, all against the wish and the law of the king. Mighty courageous lad, eh? And he died for it horribly, when he was caught. Now guess the name of this brave young man. That's right, Valentine.

So this lovers' season when you go out to find that perfect gift, think for a moment about these tragic young men called Valentine, and love your partner all the more for their sake!

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