St. Valentine

A happy Valentine's day to everyone! :-) There's not much about St. Valentine that I know, just that he was a priest, (maybe even a bishop) in Rome. He was favored by the people there and they often asked for his blessing. When the war broke out, the emperor commanded that just about every man, no matter what, would help and fight. Saddened by this emperor's command, he secretly married young people together. When the emperor found out about this, he threw into a rage and commanded that he be thrown into jail. So soldiers came and took him, even in the middle of a wedding. In jail he aided the future martyrs there. He also converted the jailer by restoring sight to the jailer's blind daughter. Because of that, the emperor ordered that he'd be beheaded. But before he was executed, it is said that he left a goodbye message for the jailer's daughter signed, "From your Valentine." He was a martyr in the end....but I don't think his story had to do much of anything what we do this day. Really strange....But some believe that Romans had some sort of custom this day...they had a drawing of names of girls and boys, who would take care of each other for a certain amount of time, including a year. They later used saint names, and St. Valentine's name happened to be one of them. Some others say that the birds began mating on St. Valentine's feastday. Then other traditions were added and performed on the eve and on the day by the English in 1477.

That's pretty much it that I know of St. Valentine. Hope everyone out there has a great day!! :-D