By Many celebrate Valentine’s Day, but a few are associated with a saint. However, the character who gave the name to the Day of Love and Friendship has a story. Today Valentine is the patron of love, marriage, commitments, young people, beekeepers, people with epilepsy and many churches. His feast is celebrated on February 14.
History of Valentine
It is believed that Valentine was a Roman Catholic priest and doctor who lived in Italy in the third century and served as a priest in Rome. There are also other Christian characters named Valentine who could have given rise to the story of this saint.
Not much is known about his life. What we do know is that he became famous for marrying loving couples who could not legally marry under the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius II.
The emperor forbade marriage to recruit more soldiers for his army as he thought marriage would distract and would be an obstacle to attract new soldiers.
When Emperor Claudius discovered that Valentine was marrying people, he ordered his arrest. During his sentence, Valentine took the opportunity to share his Christian faith and the jailer became his friend.
The jailer called Asterious was so impressed by Valentine who asked him to help teach her daughter Julia who was blind and needed someone to read the lessons, so Julia went to jail to visit him.
Over time, the Emperor heard good things about Valentine and wanted to forgive him, but on condition that he renounces his Christian faith and worships to the Roman gods. Valentine refused to renounce Jesus Christ, and this cost him his life.
Valentine was beaten and stoned on 14 February 270. He is remembered for his loving support for couples in love, and in 496, Pope Gelasius appointed date of February 14 with the official Valentine.
Miracle of Valentine
The most famous miracle of Valentine was the healing of Julia, the jailer’s blind daughter. Shortly before being sentenced to death for not giving up his Christian faith, Valentine sent a farewell letter to Julia, but she was blind and had no one to read her the letter. Through the intercession of St. Valentine, God miraculously healed Julia of her blindness so she could read the letter.
Tradition has it that Valentine’s letter said ‘from your Valentine’, so today it is celebrated as the holy day with love notes. After his death, people began to pray to Valentine to intercede for them before God for the solution of their romantic problems.
