BY VICTOR M. PARACHIN

A 21-year-old woman from Australia had been touring the United States for two months when, on January 27th, she met a man in San Francisco. “We immediately fell head over heels for each other.” A week later, on the night she was scheduled to fly home, he told her he was in love with he and wanted to spend his life with her. “I was so confused as I felt everything was happening so quickly—we had only known each other for a week and I might never see him again,” she says. On Valentine’s Day in Sydney, more than a week after she left him at the airport in San Francisco, the doorbell rang. She opened the door to find him standing there with a dozen red roses. “We married five months later.”

All around the world, February 14th is associated with romance and love. Every year on that day, millions of cards decorated with lace, lovers and friends, husbands and wives, students and teachers, children and parents, and boys and girls exchange hearts, Cupids and flowers. Although St. Valentine’s Day enjoys enormous popularity, surprisingly little is known about the man for whom the day is named. Who is this mysterious saint and why is this day celebrated? Here is a brief history of St. Valentine and his day.

Who was St. Valentine?
Valentine was a priest and a physician who lived in Rome during the third century. At that time, Christianity was a minority religion and a persecuted faith. In 270, Emperor Claudius II ordered St. Valentine to be arrested and imprisoned. When he would not recant his faith, Valentine was put death on February 14th. He was declared a Saint and a church was erected on the site of his burial plot in 350.

Why is St. Valentine associated with romance?
The connection between St. Valentine and romance was made when a Roman celebration was combined with the martyrdom of St. Valentine. February 15th was the date set aside to honor the Roman God Lupercus. On that day, young women would write love notes and deposit them in a large urn. The young men of Rome would take the notes out and then court the women whose message they had drawn. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome, the church merged the Roman holiday with the martyrdom of St. Valentine on February 14th.

How did Valentine become the Patron Saint of Lovers?
According to legend, when Valentine was a priest in Rome, young men did not want to enlist in the army to fight the emperor’s wars. Claudius II, who was the emperor, ordered young men not to marry, believing if they did not have lovers they would be more willing to abandon Rome for the battlefield. Moved by compassion for the young men and their sweethearts, St. Valentine married them in secret.

Why do Valentine cards end with the valediction ‘From your Valentine’?
Another legend explains that when St. Valentine was imprisoned and awaiting execution, he met the blind daughter of his jailor. He offered prayers for her healing and the girl’s sight was restored. Thus, a friendship was forged. On the night of his death, he wrote the girl a farewell message and signed it, ‘From your Valentine.’

How did Cupid come to be associated with Valentine’s Day cards?
Cupid, the naked cherub armed with arrows dipped in a love potion, derives from Roman mythology. According to those legends, Cupid is the son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty.

How did St. Valentine’s Day spread?
As they spread their faith across Europe, Christians continued the tradition of St. Valentine’s Day. In England and France, the day became especially popular. During the Middle Ages, when few people could read or write, friends said or sang their valentines to each other. The earliest written valentines come from the 15th century and were written from prison by French royal Charles, Duke of Orleans. In 1415, Charles was captured by the English at the battle of Agincourt. While imprisoned in the Tower of London, he composed some beautiful valentines. In 1537, a Royal Charter by Henry VIII, who had six wives, officially declared February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day. By the next century, Valentine’s Day was widely celebrated in Britain and by the 1700s cards were exchanged on a regular basis, one of the precursors of how the holiday is celebrated today. In British literature, the day was noted by William Shakespeare in Hamlet: ‘Good morrow! ’tis Valentine’s Day. And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine.’

Why is the letter ‘X’ representative of a kiss?
People who affectionately sign ‘XXX’s to Valentine cards and letters are generally unaware that the custom dates back to the early Christian era, when a cross mark or an ‘X’ conveyed the force of a sworn oath. The cross referred to both the cross of Calvary and the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Xristos. In days when few people could write, their signature cross, or ‘X,’ was a legally valid mark. To emphasize their complete contractual sincerity they often kissed the ‘X’ when an oath was sworn upon it. It was this practicing of kissing the ‘X’ which led to its becoming the symbol of a kiss.

How did St. Valentine’s Day come to the United States?
Valentines came to the U.S. with the earliest English settlers. John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wrote to his wife, “February 14, 1629, Thou must be my Valentine.” Initially, the early colonists were so busy cultivating the land and making a new life they did not have time to make nor send Valentines. As the years passed, however, Valentine’s became more common. During the winter months, when farming could not be done, people had more time and many young men made their own Valentine cards. Mail in colonial times was expensive and irregular, so when February 14th arrived men folded their Valentines, sealed them with wax and personally delivered them.

Who developed the first commercial American valentines?
Esther A. Howland, of Worcester, Massachusetts, is credited with developing America’s Valentine’s Day cards in 1847. That year she sold an astonishing five thousand dollars worth of cards. Esther Howland’s fancy, colorful Valentines made St. Valentine’s Day extremely popular. Soon, other manufacturers were producing cards. The commercial development of Valentine’s Day cards coincided with the regulating of postal service. In 1847 the US Post office began to sell a five-cent stamp, which could take a Valentine any place in the country.

How many Valentine’s Day cards are sold annually?
More than one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sold each year, says an official of the Hallmark greeting card company. With the exception of Christmas, Americans exchange more cards on Valentine’s Day than at any other time of the year.