The St. Valentine Story

So you want to know my story, Yes? OK first off my name is Valentine, and if you lived in Rome in the third century during the time that Claudius was Emperor we might have met especially if you didn’t like the Emperor and believe me there were a lot of people who didn’t like him!

If you know anything about Roman Emperors then you’ll know that they all wanted to have a bigger and better army that the guy before them and Claudius was no exception and he wanted them all to volunteer. You can’t really have a full volunteer army especially if you are continuously fighting wars, a lot of men just wanted to stay at home with their wives and families.

Claudius was disappointed because there wasn’t many fit men who volunteered and this made him furious! But he had an idea, Claudius was always having ideas. It was his opinion that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Well you can guess what young people thought of that idea! I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn't going to support that law!

Now my calling in life is that of a priest and one of best parts of a priests life is getting to marry two young people deeply in love. So even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies -- secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers. I don’t want to take all the credit many of my fellow priests also held secret ceremonies.

But my look ran out and one night while performing a service I was raided! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I just couldn’t hot foot it as quickly as I use to! I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.

I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love. I bet this made Claudius even madder!

One of my young vistors was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, "Love from your Valentine."

And what you now do on Valentine’s Day all started from that little thank you note, a note written on the day I died February 14, 269. It makes me happy that every year there is a special day for the young, and the not so young, to say ‘I Love You.’ And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh -- because they know that love can't be beaten!

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