Legend has it that in the 3rd century AD, the Roman Emperor Claudius II created an edict prohibiting the marriage of young people under Christian doctrine. It was a time when Christians were persecuted and this rule further condemned them.

A Roman priest named Valentinus secretly married young lovers despite the cruel law. He wanted to encourage them to marry within the Christian church.

But his mission of love turned bloody when he was caught and imprisoned by the emperor’s soldiers.

According to some accounts, one of Valentinus’ judges, a man named Asterius, visited him in prison. Valentinus found out that Asterius had a blind daughter.

The imprisoned priest prayed for the young girl and eventually restored her sight. An amazed Asterius converted to Christianity as a result.

On February 14 in 269 A.D., Valentinus was sentenced to a 3-part execution of beating, stoning and finally, decapitation.

His last words were on a note to Asterius’ daughter. He is said to have signed it, “from your Valentine.”

Other historians say that the Day of Hearts is celebrated on February 14 because of an ancient Roman pagan ritual. Every February 13 to 15, ancient Romans celebrated the Lupercalia, a pagan fertility festival.

To begin the festival, priests of the order Luperci would gather in the sacred cave where Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were weaned by a she-wolf or lupa.

In the cave, the priests would sacrifice a goat and dog for fertility and purification.

They then dipped strips of the goat’s hide in blood and went out into the villages where they would gently slap women and crops with the bloody goat hide.

The women welcomed the slaps of goat strips because they believed it would make them fertile.

Centuries later, Valentine’s Day is celebrated all over the world. The cliché Valentine’s Day poem was published in a collection of English nursery rhymes “Gammer Gurton’s Garland” in 1784.

It goes:
The rose is red, the violet's blue,
The honey's sweet, and so are you.
Thou art my love and I am thine;
I drew thee to my Valentine:
The lot was cast and then I drew,

And Fortune said it shou'd be you.

In 1913, Hallmark Cards produces its first Valentine’s Day card.

Today, modern Valentine’s Day is often celebrated with red roses, chocolates and candle-lit dinners. But even that is changing. Valentine’s Day continues to evolve through the years but with the same message of spreading love in its many forms.