Feb. 11, 2026 | Abbi Duhart | News Editor
Today, Valentine’s Day is a day about love, often celebrated by exchanging chocolate, flowers and gifts between partners and friends. Though there are concrete theories on the origins of Valentine’s Day, it’s hard to be sure where it came from.
There are two slightly different well-known legends originating in the third century about St. Valentine rooted in Catholic and Roman traditions that potentially explain the origins, though scholars are unsure which is true. The first says that Valentine was an ancient priest in Rome during the rule of Emperor Claudius II Gothicus. The emperor claimed that young, single men made the best soldiers rather than married men with families. Because of this, he outlawed marriage for young men, opting for strong soldiers instead. Valentine was deeply unsettled by this and decided to marry couples in secret. When he was eventually discovered, he was imprisoned and executed.
A variation of this legend claims that Valentine was instead imprisoned and killed for assisting Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were tortured and beaten, some believing he also gave them cutout hearts to remind them of the love their religion promises.
In both of these stories, while Valentine was in jail, he fell in love with a girl who would visit him. Before he was executed, he sent her a letter — considered the first Valentine’s card — that he signed off saying, “from your Valentine.” Many believe that this is where the expression that is still used today came from.
A lesser-known theory claims that Valentine was actually a bishop of Interamna, or modern-day Italy. Similarly, he was executed by Emperor Claudius for following his Catholic faith and converting people against the religion of the emperor.
While all three legends take on different forms, the thread that connects them all is that St. Valentine is always recognized as a romantic hero.
During the fifth century, Pope Gelasius declared Valentine’s Day Feb. 14, though it didn’t start off as the romantic holiday we know today. It is, again, unclear why the holiday was decided to be celebrated Feb. 14th, though many believe it is because this was the day St. Valentine died.
Some also believe Catholics chose this day in order to Christianize the pagan celebration of Lupercalia that happened Feb. 15. Lupercalia was a Roman fertility festival that was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. Some scholars reject this theory, though, claiming that the lack of similarities between the two holidays made it unlikely that there was a connection.
During the Middle Ages, it was believed that Feb. 14 was the beginning of mating season for birds, contributing to the eventual romantic feel of the holiday. Soon after, Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to write about Valentine’s Day as a romantic occasion in one of his poems.
By the middle of the 17th century, Valentine’s Day was a holiday to celebrate the coming of spring. Additionally, there are records of 18th-century English using a matchmaking lottery where singles would draw a name from a pot to find their Valentine. It was believed that pairs who were drawn had a good omen for their future marriage.
Though it is unclear how exactly Valentine’s Day started, it is widely celebrated today as a day of romantic love and friendship.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
