The Complex History of Saint Valentine’s Day

Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Brigid History and Mythology Blog! Today we’ll be exploring the history of Saint Valentine's Day, starting with the very real Roman Catholic martyr. Read on!

Valentine’s Day in the United States 

When we were very young, Valentine’s Day meant the same thing each year: one day in February, the teacher would wrangle all the kids in the classroom together and get them started on another crafts project. Usually, the project would be to make a little mailbox for yourself out of cardboard and craft paper. Next, you'd sign, seal, and deliver little brightly colored cards to each other. These usually featured a character like Barbie, Snoopy, or Iron Man asking if you’d be theirs, and came stuffed in a little pink envelope.

Later, the adult version of Valentine’s Day means bouquets of red roses are delivered to our offices. Big heart-shaped boxes of candy are given to one another. Huge teddy bears with “Be Mine” written in cursive across their tummies suddenly become hot commodities. We know this is a day to show love and appreciation for the people in our lives, but why? While we’re at it, why is it all about buying stuff? Let's look for answers into the history of Saint Valentine's Day.

The Many Saint Valentines

On February 14th of the year 269, a missionary named Valentine of Rome was martyred. This is the Saint Valentine we usually think of the holiday being associated with. 

However, the name Valentine was very popular among Christian missionaries of the time. As in, the holiday also honors Valentine of Terni, another early missionary who was martyred in 273. Both Valentines were said to have been martyred for defying the Emperor’s laws and performing marriages for persecuted Christians. Perhaps this connects each of them to Valentine’s Day as a celebration of love.

It’s with Valentine of Rome’s story that we begin to see the connection of the day’s focus on love. His Catholic feast day falls on February 14th, the same date of his end outside of Rome after refusing to obey an order from the Emperor against ministering to persecuted Christians in 269.

Before he found himself in his predicament, Valentine of Rome had cured the daughter of a local judge of blindness and fallen in love with her. Before his execution, he wrote one last letter to her, signing it, “from your Valentine.” From this legend, whether true or not, the custom of giving Valentine’s Day cards was born.

Rome converted to Christianity and the persecutions had ended. For many centuries, Valentine’s Day was held as a day honoring a martyred saint, like most other saints’ days. It wasn’t until over a thousand years after his death that Valentine would come to be associated with romantic love.

Lupercalia’s Possible Role

Some have made a connection between the holiday and the old Roman festival of Lupercalia, a notorious party festival which happened to occur around the same time, but that idea is not universally agreed with.

Valentine’s Day’s distant association with Lupercalia is a handy one: Lupercalia wasn't just about fertility, but also about purification. Many still find this part of the day very relevant today. We made the Herbal Blend aromatherapy candle in this spirit. It was created to cleanse spaces with its potent mixture of frankincense, rosemary, and myrtle.

Literature Connects Valentine to Love

Geoffrey Chaucer himself, the Poet of England, was the source of many of the legends around Valentine: it wasn’t until the birds met on Valentine’s Day to meet their mates in his poem Parliament of Fowles, written sometime in the 14th century, that anyone had made the romantic connection.

“For this was on seynt Valentynes day, Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make.”
For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird comes to chase his mate.

However, Chaucer was only famously connected to one kind of love, and that was courtly love. This tradition gave us the term courtship. Courtly love often has a bit of a tragic air, since ideally, it is never consummated. Instead, in this traditional take on relationships, the man's job is to pine for the woman endlessly, always from afar. Taking the relationship to kissing or holding hands in public would be an appalling breach of civility.

It is worth noting Chaucer had a sense of humor to these norms, notoriously noted with The Nun's Priest's Tale, in which the courtier encounters a rude reality.

From Shakespeare to Victoria

By the 16th century, Shakespeare himself was drawing the connection in Hamlet:

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning bedtime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine. -Ophelia

So, if Valentine's Day started off being associated with courtly love, how did it change so that it is so closely linked to grand displays of affection? 

By the Victorian era, Valentine’s Day began to be known for gift-giving in England and the United States. In the burgeoning commercialism of the early industrial age, people began giving each other Valentine's Day cards, echoing their adoption of Christmas cards and other holiday well-wishes. From here, it wasn't long until the conversation heart appeared in the 1860s. The first heart-shaped box of chocolates was released by Cadbury the same decade.

In the 20th century, the World Wars interrupted many lives and made Valentine’s Day a tough holiday for those separated from their loved ones. Despite this, sharing cards was common to support one another in dark times. Even in the trenches, soldiers on all sides would receive cards from back home. The history of Saint Valentine's Day traditions were honored in tandem with life during wartime itself.

After both World Wars I and II, rather than let the machines which had fabricated goods for the war effort be stripped down, companies repurposed them to start producing consumer goods for the booming postwar economy. While the early postwar Valentine’s Day cards seemed a little smaller and leaner, soon the heart-shaped boxes of chocolates were back in droves.

The History of Saint Valentine’s Day's Role Today

As you can see, the story of Valentine's Day is complex, winding from ancient Rome through medieval literature to Victorian gift-giving and the postwar boom. Nowadays, Valentine's Day has joined Christmas as a holiday many feel they can't get away from, and the confused history of Saint Valentine's Day doesn't do it a lot of favors. Still, there are a few ways you can reach back into history and make it something more personal.

For many, Valentine's Day means flowers, which is fitting considering it falls about the same time of the year when the first buds are starting to bloom. For a floral experience second to none, we recommend The Florist collection, a timeless blend of jasmine, ylang ylang, helichrysum, and sandalwood. Or, if your Valentine's Day simply must have roses, try the Cross of Brigid scented candle, with rose, heather, narcissus, and vetiver.