Hallmark Doesn't Own Valentine's Day!
...it actually owns ALL OF US today, but let's digress into some history that didn't involve chalky candy and 10$ cards.
Whether you love it or loathe it, Valentine’s Day hath arrived and there’s no escaping it. As an adult, there are about a billion ways to deal with or celebrate today in any form we choose, which is a huge step up from those dreaded earlier days of kitschy romantic lore (talking to you, “candy grams” that haunted us from elementary all the way through high school, promptly reminding everyone in homeroom what a lonely loser so many of us were)
But I’m not here to talk about today in any sort of modern, chocolatey soliloquy. I’m ready to yammer on a little about St. Valentine himself.
That’s right, the OG of the VD (I know what I did there, and you better believe it’s not getting cut out of this essay because I think I’m hilarious.) There was a time in history when the world was ruled by giant jerks (Hard to believe, right?) and one of these jerks in particular decided he was going to outlaw marriage (again, hard to believe!!!) This jerk’s name was Emperor Claudius II, and he didn’t outlaw marriage for everyone—just for the soldiers fighting wars for him. He thought love and marriage would be too big of a distraction for his military as they continued to battle in Claudius’ name.
So, in comes St. Valentine. Ol’ Val made a huge life change when he decided to shed the career he’d held for so long as a doctor to become a Christian priest. In his new position, Val didn’t agree with this outlaw of marriage, so he began to secretly officiate weddings for the soldiers. Well, Claudius II caught wind of it and predictably threw Val in jail.
But Valentine didn’t save his love and passion just for marrying people—even in jail, he performed some seriously romantic miracles.
Valentine befriended nearly everyone in the slammer, including his own jailer, and he fervidly told stories of his unconditional devotion to his faith and beliefs. Val’s buddies hung onto every single word, too, which was a miracle in itself, considering they all lived in a time when most people were against single-god worship.
It’s no surprise then that eventually all the prisoners and staff came to see Valentine as a worldly type of scholar, which is probably why Val’s new bff jailer came to him with a request. The jailer had a blind daughter, Julia, and he asked if the newly minted priest would read stories to her. He wanted Val to pull from all the books he knew, and teach Julia the ways of the world that she could not (literally) see.
Legend goes that Julia and Val formed an instant friendship that would quickly blossom into a secret romance while Val read to her. There is even a dose of magic in this tale that Julia was cured of her blindness towards the end of Valentine’s stint in jail.
Oh, yes, there is an end to this story.
In a strange twist of events, the emperor Claudius II (remember that jerk?) decided he actually liked Valentine (could it be this affinity was a sudden onset after Valentine became the most popular kid in school—ahem, prison). Claudius offered a get-out-of-jail free card for Valentine that wasn’t so free. This voucher could only be cashed in if Val renounced his faith and started believing in what everyone else did.
Valentine refused pretty immediately, so his end wasn’t so romantic, as he was put to death shortly after the declined proposal.
But! Before his execution on February 14th, 270 A.D. (because of course it was), Valentine wrote a letter to his Julia, thanking her for her friendship and love.
And wouldn’t you know. He signed his letter, “From Your Valentine”.
I didn’t know this whole story! Thanks for sharing! 💛
Who knew? Thanks! My “thing I learned today “!