St. Valentine's Day

Here's a little history on a nasty holiday:
February 15th,the Feast of Lupercalia: The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate, during the conservative years of Rome. However, one of the customs of the young people was love lotteries. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls wrote their names on slips of paper and placed them into jars. Each guy would draw a girl's name from the jar. Then they would then be partners for the festival.

The Emperor Claudius II having a difficult time at filling the ranks of his military leagues. He believed that the reason was roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. Therefore, Claudius II cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome to increase the numbers in the leagues. St. Valentine was a priest at Rome in these days . He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples.

For his part in aiding Christians and disobeying the decree of the Emperor, St. Valentine was captured and brought before the Prefect of Rome. He was charged and condemned to be beaten to death with and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on February 14, 269 A.D. Legend has it: that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend. The letter was signed "From Your Valentine".

In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honour St. Valentine’s matyrdom. Overtime, St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers and modern day exchange of love notes. Have we really came that far? Its still a game of chance (HA HA).