Today is the feast day of Saint Valentine, an early Christian martyr who was executed on this day (or July 6 or 30, depending on whichever branch of Christianity) in circa 269. Well, we aren’t sure what year, and that’s because there are a number of early Christian martyrs named Valentine who are all recognised as saints by the Roman Catholic Church.

But if there’s one thing historians agree on, it’s that the stories around Valentine are probably apocryphal since there are so many of them, all different. Nevertheless and whatever you believe, one commonality is that Valentine is said to have performed the miracle of restoring sight to the daughter of his Roman jailer and that just before he was executed, he wrote her a letter and signed it “your Valentine.”

Another commonality and the one that more closely lead to him becoming the patron saint of lovers is that before he was imprisoned for his religious beliefs he supposedly married a number of Christian Roman soldiers who otherwise would not have been able to tie the knot.

But as so often happens throughout history, centuries passed and the identity and religious purpose of Saint Valentine’s Day became almost completely obscured. By the 14th century his popularity was revived but only because of the notions of courtly love invented by the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer and a bit further on, also by William Shakespeare. 500 years later he appeared again because the Victorians liked the concept of ideal romantic love and set about establishing many of the traditions – such as the giving of cards – that we are familiar with today.

Whether you celebrate – either from a religious or secular perspective – Saint Valentine’s Day or not, it is a good time to recognise the importance of unselfish love and all it can accomplish. 🩷