The Roman Empire was experiencing
massive turmoil at the time. Dubbed the 'Crisis of the Third Century' by
scholars, this period saw the empire divide into three competing states, with
the threat of invasion all around.
The Roman Emperor Claudius made the
unpopular decision to ban marriage for the young men of the empire, believing
that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers - they would more
readily give up their life in a conflict. With the Roman Empire hanging by a
thread, Claudius needed all the brazen war power he could get.
This is where Valentine comes in; the
holy priest who believed marriage to be a God-given sacrament. Valentine began
officiating marriages in secret but was eventually found out and imprisoned.
Valentine biographer, Greg Tobin has noted that the advent of the Valentine's
Day love note may have come about from young children passing Valentine's notes
through the prison bars to future couples.
Tobin describes Saint Valentine's
fate:
The priest was eventually beheaded and
then named a martyr by the Church because he gave up his life to perform the
sacrament of marriage: for the love of love and love of God.
At the end of the 5th century, Pope
Gelasius I declared February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day, and centuries later
romantic authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and Shakespeare helped seal the
tradition with references to the day in their works.
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