The Three Legends of Valentine

The celebration of Valentine day originated from a Roman fertility feast known as the Feast of Lupercalia observed in ancient Rome as a day of offering gifts to the goddess of free sex and fertility. The Catholics substituted it with some “Christian’s symbolism”. There were three origins of St. Valentine according to religious legends.

The most famous was that of a Roman priest executed around A.D. 269. He was a man who renounced his priestly calling and vowed to celibacy in order to marry a girl. He was known as Valentinus who was condemned to death by Emperor Claudius II for converting the family of Asterius. On the eve of his execution that fell on February 13, 270, 270 A.D., he wrote a farewell love letter to his young girl and signed it “from your Valentine”.

The third legend is more detailed.  As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite to passage to the god Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration of the year, after which another lottery was staged. After eight hundred years of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice... They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some two hundred years earlier. According to Catholic Church tradition St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius II had issued an edict forbidding marriage. This was around when the heyday of Roman Empire had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. Learning declined, taxation increased, and trade slumped to a low, precarious level. And the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asian increased their pressure on the empire's boundaries. The empire was grown too large to be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Thus more of capable men were required to be recruited as soldiers and officers. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage.

The feast of St. Valentine day and its sex oriented celebration has no spiritual and biblical relevance.

Valentine, a bishop, seeing the trauma of young lovers, met them in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had him arrested. The emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman gods, to save him from certain execution. Valentine refused to recognize Roman gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully. On February 24, 270, Valentine was executed.  In 496 A.D,  Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honour St. Valentine.

While Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact with his jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius requested him to heal his daughter. Through his faith he miraculously restored the sight of Asterius' daughter. Just before his execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that lived ever after.

Valentine thus becomes a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St. Valentine's name.

The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world. One of the earliest card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the British Museum. Who is Cupid? In painting and sculpture, Cupid is often portrayed as a nude winged boy armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows. The Hindu Kama also has a very similar description. The traditional Christian depiction of a cherub is based on him. On gems and other surviving pieces, he is usually shown amusing himself with childhood play, sometimes driving a hoop, throwing darts, catching a butterfly, or flirting with a nymph. He is often depicted with his mother (in graphic arts, this is nearly always Venus), playing a horn. He is also shown wearing a helmet and carrying a buckler, perhaps in reference to Virgil's Omnia vincit amor or as political satire on wars for love or love as war.

Cupid figures prominently in ariel poetry, lyrics and, of course, elegiac love and metamorphic poetry. In epic poetry, he is less often invoked, but he does appear in Virgil's Aeneid changed into the shape of Ascanius inspiring Dido's love. In later literature, Cupid is frequently invoked as fickle, playful, and perverse. He is often depicted as carrying two sets of arrows: one set gold-headed, which inspire love; and the other lead-headed, which inspire hatred.

Everything related to the celebration of Valentine day came from pagan ritual of sex and fertility. The modern celebration originated came from a priest who renounced marriage but caught having an affair with a young girl, or sexually abused young girls in the name of love. The fanatics painted the Valentine day color red to boost its emotional impact on love, marriage and sex. They also added a mysterious angel called Cupid to make an impression that Valentine day was the idea of God. It is interesting to note that even the Catholic historians have difficulty of creating a reliable story.

The feast of St. Valentine day and its sex oriented celebration has no spiritual and biblical relevance. Valentine’s celebrations enslave people including Christians with burdensome, expensive, and oppressive activities, creating unrealistic expectation from human solution invented by religious leaders.

Christians are not commanded to celebrate Valentine’s Day and churches must depart from such deviating practices since it is evil and non-Scriptural .It cannot edify the Church and it cannot glorify God. Christians must examine their local church’s practices and beliefs and stand for the truth. The Bible is the absolute standards of all the Christian’s practices and beliefs.

POINTS TO CONSIDER:

Valentine’s Day and everything about it came from pagan ritual of sex and fertility. The totality of Valentine concept is not in the Bible. The feast of St. Valentine and its romantic celebration has no biblical and spiritual relevance.

The believers are not commanded to celebrate Valentine’s Day and there is no room for it in the Christian churches [Galatians 4:9-10]. The Lord Jesus and His disciples did not celebrate Valentine’s Day. The Bible is not silent about it but because it is pagan, it is rejected and there is no need to argue about it.

Cupid is not an angel of God. There is no such thing as angel of love and elect angels of God in the Bible did not appear to human as naked babies and are never portrayed as either women or babies.

Our modern Valentine’s Day originates from priests who renounced marriage but both were in love with young girls.

The color red is not the color of love of God. Love has no color. Love is not just romance or sex as advocate by the god of love.

Valentine’s Day enslaves people to do things that are burdensome. It creates false hope and expectation from human solution to human relationship particularly marriage affairs. Valentine dinner date will not solve or improve your marital conflict or secure your marriage affair.

Valentine’s Day is commercialism and bondage of highest order. Its primary concern is romance, sex and lust. It allures people into erotic relationship as solution to human relationship problems.

Some apostate churches are joining the world in the celebration of this evil ritual of sex and fertility. Such affairs cannot edify the Church and glorify God. To use pagan activities such as Valentine’s Day to raise money for the church is devious and blasphemous. We cannot join people who claims that they are biblical fundamentalists yet observe and celebrate pagan rituals like New Year, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.

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