Who was St Valentine and why is he associated with lovers?
There can be few saints’ days that are more widely celebrated than St Valentine. But who was he and why is his name associated with lovers?
The answer is that no-one knows.
One theory is that Roman soldiers were at one point forbidden to marry while in service. A priest known as Valentine (a common Roman name) secretly performed weddings for soldiers and their brides, and names were not recorded – for obvious reasons. Tradition has it that he was found out and met his end on 14th February.
But the celebration of St Valentines as a day of love seems to date from the Middle Ages and from colder climates than Italy. In the 1370s, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a book called “Parlement of Fowls” that contains this line: “For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.”
Europe, at the time, was ready for such ideas, in the era of courtly love and romance. Inspired by Chaucer men and women began sending little poems anonymously to their love interests.
Another literary reference to valentines comes from Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, when the sending of a Valentine for amusement sets of a series of events that ends in tragedy. Be careful who you send your Valentine to.