Who was St. Valentine?
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Saint Valentine or Saint Valentinus refers to one of at least three martyred saints of ancient Rome. The feast of Saint Valentine was formerly celebrated on February 14 by the Roman Catholic Church until the revised calendar 1969.\n\nThe feast of St. Valentine was first decreed in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine— and Saint George— among those "...whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." The creation of the feast for such dimly conceived figures may have been an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia that was still being celebrated in 5th century Rome, on February 15.\n\nAccording to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the saint whose feast was celebrated on the day now known as Valentine's Day was possibly one of the three martyred men who lived in the late 3rd century during the reign of Emperor Claudius II (died 270):\n\na priest in Rome \na bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) \na martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick
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Valentine's is celebrated on February 14, celebrated in various American and European countries by the exchange of valentines or love tokens.\n\nRoman Roots\nThe history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day.\n\nValentines Galore\nWhich St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.\n\nMost scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. At this stage, the factual ends and the mythic begins. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed "from your Valentine." Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.\n\nIn 1969, the Catholic Church revised its liturgical calendar, removing the feast days of saints whose historical origins were questionable. St. Valentine was one of the casualties.\n\nChaucer's Love Birds\nIt was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine's Day with romance.\n\nIn 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honor of the engagement between England's Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition, Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In "The Parliament of Fowls," the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine's Day are linked:\n\nFor this was on St. Valentine's Day, \nWhen every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.\n\nTradition of Valentine's Cards\n Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. The tradition of Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them. Today, of course, the holiday has become a booming commercial success. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines.
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Yes I believe in Santa Claus. There was a fellow who went around doing good deeds for people named Saint Nicholas. He was became a Saint in one of the branch of the Christian Religions. He lived in Turkey during the 4th Century and he was best known for his good deed to a poor man who had three daughters all of them wanted to get married but the father had no money for a dowery for each of his daughters. So that none of them would become prostitutes, Nicholas as he was called at that time went to the man's house and through an open window placed money in each of the daughter's stockings. Hence the idea of putting gifts in one stockings. There is a shrine to him in Bari Italy. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of archers,children,prostitutes, lawyers and pharamacist plus a few other people in different trades. So yes there really is a Santa Clause and he wasn't made up by coke-a-cola.
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As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite to passage to the God Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration of the year, after which another lottery was staged. After eight hundred years of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice... They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some two hundred years earlier.\n\nAccording to church tradition St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius-II who had issued an edict forbidding marriage.\nThis was around when the heyday of Roman empire had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. Learning declined, taxation increased, and trade slumped to a low, precarious level. And the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asian increased their pressure on the empire's boundaries. The empire was grown too large to be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Thus more of capable men were required to be recruited as soldiers and officers. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage.\nValentine, a bishop , seeing the trauma of young lovers, met them in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had him arrested. The emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman gods, to save him from certain execution. Valentine refused to recognize Roman Gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully.\nOn February 24, 270, Valentine was executed.\n\n"From your Valentine"\nWhile Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact with his jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius requested him to heal his daughter. Through his faith he miraculously restored the sight of Asterius' daughter. Just before his execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that lived ever after.\n\n\nValentine thus become a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St.Valentine's name.\n\nThe Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world. One of the earliest card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the British Museum.
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The Origins of St. Valentine's Day\n\nA quick quiz: St. Valentine was:\n\na)  a priest in the Roman Empire who helped persecuted Christians during the reign of Claudius II, was thrown in jail and later beheaded on Feb. 14.\n\nb)  a Catholic bishop of Terni who was beheaded, also during the reign of Claudius II.\n\nc)  someone who secretly married couples when marriage was forbidden, or suffered in Africa, or wrote letters to his jailer's daughter, and was probably beheaded.\n\nd)  all, some, or possibly none of the above.\n\nIf you guessed d), give yourself a box of chocolates. Although the mid-February holiday celebrating love and lovers remains wildly popular, the confusion over its origins led the Catholic Church, in 1969, to drop St. Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts. (Those highly sought-after days are reserved for saints with more clear historical record. After all, the saints are real individuals for us to imitate.) Some parishes, however, observe the feast of St. Valentine.\n\nThe roots of St. Valentine's Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year.\n\nPope Gelasius I was, understandably, less than thrilled with this custom. So he changed the lottery to have both young men and women draw the names of saints whom they would then emulate for the year (a change that no doubt disappointed a few young men). Instead of Lupercus, the patron of the feast became Valentine. For Roman men, the day continued to be an occasion to seek the affections of women, and it became a tradition to give out handwritten messages of admiration that included Valentine's name.\n\nThere was also a conventional belief in Europe during the Middle Ages that birds chose their partners in the middle of February. Thus the day was dedicated to love, and people observed it by writing love letters and sending small gifts to their beloved. Legend has it that Charles, duke of Orleans, sent the first real Valentine card to his wife in 1415, when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. (He, however, was not beheaded, and died a half-century later of old age
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Legend has it that while St. Valentine was in prison--awaiting execution for defying a Roman emperor's edict against conducting marriages--he fell in love with his jailor's blind daughter.\n\nThrough unwavering faith, the story says, Valentine restored the woman's sight. Then, before his execution, he slipped her a farewell note signed "from your Valentine"--the original Valentine's card.
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wrong\n\nEvery February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day -- and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.\n\nOne legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.\n\nOther stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.  \n  \n According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
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valentine's day came from St. Valentine. He is a roman priest in nearly 600-700 a.d. In his time, roman should praise their roman god and godess, but valentine worship Chrsit, our God. That's why the emperor of that time decided to persecute Valentine. While he was in the jail, waiting for his persecution, Valentine wrote a letter for his love ones. He was persecuted and died february 14. \n\nEvery year, his family and friends celebrate his death by sharing their love to each other. When valentine became a saint. The tradition of his family spread all over the world. Thats how valentine's day originatred.
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he first recorded association of St. Valentine's Day with romantic love was in the 14th century in England and France, where ****February 14 was traditionally the day on which birds paired off to mate.**** This belief is mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parlement of Foules (1381)\n\nIn the following century, one of John Lydgate's minor poems is "A balade made..in wyse of chesing loues at Saint Valentynes day" which indicates that the manner of choosing was drawing lots. By the 17th century a valentine was extended to the gift given, some pretty token.\n\nIt was common during that era for lovers to exchange notes on this day and to call each other their "Valentines". A 14th century valentine is said to be in the collection of the British Library. It is probable that many of the legends about St. Valentine were invented during this period.
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See this website for the origin of Valentine's Day (Not a massacre, although there is a famous mob hit called "the valentine's day massacre")
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St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, the products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling.\n\nIt is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. Although his father was a Christian deacon, it has been suggested that he probably took on the role because of tax incentives and there is no evidence that Patrick came from a particularly religious family. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. (There is some dispute over where this captivity took place. Although many believe he was taken to live in Mount Slemish in County Antrim, it is more likely that he was held in County Mayo near Killala.) During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. (It is also believed that Patrick first began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity during his captivity.)\n\nSt. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for thousands of years.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day#History_of_Valentine.27s_Day
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There was a priest (maybe a bishop) in ancient Rome named St. Valentine, who, while in jail sent a love letter to his lover.  The next day he was beheaded.
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20th february, 1986\njust 6 days after VALENTINE`s day
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Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire.  In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno.  Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses.  The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage.  The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.\n\nThe lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate.  However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing.  On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars.  Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose.  Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.\n\nUnder the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns.  Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues.  He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families.  As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.  The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II.  He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off.  He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270.  At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god.  On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.\n\nThe pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens.  And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feaSt. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.
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http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=205\nhttp://ivory.lm.com/~strita/strita.html\nhttp://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintr01.htm\n\nHOpe these help.