Happy Valentine’s Day: Did you know Valentine’s Day comes From a Catholic Priest Killed for Love?

It is Valentine’s Day, or rather to the Catholic faithful’s St Valentine’s Day which is celebrated every year on 14^th of February.

We all know it to be a day of love when we go the extra mile to celebrate the special persons in our life through gifting and creating time to be together and reflect on each other’s value. But where did Valentines really come from?

Valentine’s Day comes from the death of one Catholic saint called Saint Valentine who was born in 2264D in Rome Italy.

Valentine was brought up in the Catholic faith and became a priest and then a bishop with the aim of ministering to Christians who were persecuted in Rome. Rome was then under the Roman emperor called Claudius II who vehemently prohibited any marriage of a young couple in the church citing that married soldiers made horrible fighters.

Saint Valentine was of a different opinion and viewed marriage as a sacred institution between one man and one woman thus making it holy according to God’s will so he encouraged couples to marry within the church and secretly united them in holy matrimony without the knowledge of Claudius II.

Valentine Jailed

Claudius II found out that Valentine was uniting couples in marriage secretly and had him jailed and sentenced to death.

When in jail, Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and before he was killed on 14^th of February, he sent her a love letter and signed “from your Valentine”. The norm to celebrate the day then began from a Roman festival.

In their way of celebrating, Roman boys drew names of girls from a box. They would then get into relationships after the festival and a majority of the relationships would end in marriage.

The Catholic Church decided to turn the Valentine festival into a Christian celebration and use it to remember St Valentine.

St Valentine’s name slowly became synonymous with love and the day he was killed became marked as a day to share and show love with the Catholic leadership sharing out messages of love. 2019’s Valentine message from the Pope reads; “Build love, Commit to it forever, Living together requires consideration and care, Be courteous and grateful, recognize mistakes and apologize sincerely, Don’t expect perfection and Don’t go to bed angry”.

Soko Directory wishes our audience a happy Valentine’s Day!

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