The Story of Valentine’s Day

There was a person by name Valentine. He was a priest. He lived in Rome during the third century. At that time, Rome was ruled by an Emperor named Claudius. He didn’t like Emperor Claudius, and he wasn’t the only one. A lot of people shared his feelings.

Emperor Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families, so not many men turned up. This made Claudius furious. He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So he decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. St.Valentine was preposterous; he wasn’t going to support this law.

One of his favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed a law, he kept on performing marriage ceremonies secretly. One night, he heard the footsteps of the solders when he was getting a couple married. The couple managed to escape in time but he was caught by the soldiers and was thrown in the jail and was sentenced to death.

Many young people came to the jail to visit him. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. They wanted him to know that they too believed in love. One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed his to visit him in the cell. Sometimes she would sit and talk for hours. She helped him to keep us his spirits.

She agreed that he did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day when he had to die, he left a little note to the prisoner’s daughter thanking for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.”

That day that note started the custom of exchange love messages on Valentine’s Day. I was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 AD.