What's the Deal with Valentines Day? What does a Christian saint have to do with candy hearts and chocoloates?
Not much, to tell the truth. It’s another example of what happens when Christian faith intersects with pagan custom: a tradition whose origins remain unclear.
Valentine’s Day is the feast day of St. Valentine. It is not certain who this saint was. There are at least two individuals named Valentine (Lat. Valentinus) who might be at the heart, no pun intended, of the tradition. One Valentine was a Roman priest who died in AD 269 under Emperor Claudius II Gothicus. He was executed for helping Christian martyrs. He refused to renounce his faith and became a martyr himself, being beaten to death and beheaded. According to tradition, this happened on February 14th. A second candidate is a bishop from central Italy who was executed in Rome. Other traditions hold that both men also performed marriages that were considered illegal because they occurred during a time of war.
In AD 469, Pope Gelasius set February 14th as the feast day to honor this Christian martyr and saint. St. Valentine was said to have suffered from epilepsy and so became the patron saint of those who suffer epilepsy.
Now how, where did all the romance stuff come from, you ask? That’s where the syncretism comes in.
The 15th of February was also the Roman “Feast of Purification” known as the Lupercalia or Februarca. Associated with the coming of spring, it was a celebration intended to ensure the fertility of flocks, fields, and people. It’s not a big jump from fertility to romance.
Probably as a result of the conflating of a holiday about fertility and a feast day to commemorate a saint who had been persecuted for performing marriages, the Feast of St. Valentine became a holiday associated with romance and it was not long before St. Valentine would be identified as the patron saint of lovers.
Now, about the chocolates, the roses, and the cards? You might have to look to Fanny Farmer, FTD, and Hallmark for the answers to that one.