Valentine's day is the day when everyone expresses love but why is this day celebrated? There are quite a few stories shedding light on the origin of Valentine's Day. One of those stories takes us back to the 3rd century Rome. At that time it was going through many religious turmoils as many Romans were converting into Christianity. But there Pagan emperor Claudius 2nd didn't liked this. He was a very strict ruler and wanted to stop it. But there was one priest named Saint Valentine who attracted much disfavour from the Pagan emperor for helping fellow Christians. That s because he lived in a time when the Roman Empire was in danger and faced threats from inside and outside the borders. And all of the stupidity that could have been possible for the inability of the Roman army in defending the empire, there was one that stood out to the pagan emperor particularly. He was of the opinion that marriages were causing distraction among the soldiers. So, he decided to ban the soldiers from getting married, as it was making them weak and straying them from their path. The ban of marriages came as a shock to the soldiers. It is then, Saint Valentine decided that by the powers bestowed on him, he would secretly help the soldiers to get married and started performing ceremonies in the church. Due to this kind act of Saint Valentine, he became an angel for the soldiers. He also gave heart shaped parchments to those people to remind them of their vows and God's love. But the knowledge of this secretive mission went to wrong places and was then reported to the emperor Claudius 2.
The emperor became so angry and ordered Valentine to be arrested and locked him up in a dungeon. The jail where Valentine was locked had a jailer named Asterias who noticed Valentine helping and talking to the people in the dungeon. He also noticed how knowledgeable he was. So, he started to bring his blind daughter,Julia to him in hope of been healed by him. St. Valentine began her reading books about Roman history and Gods. According to some legends he also eventually healed Julia's eyesight. Asterias was so happy and he surrendered to Valentine and took up his faith Christianity. Soon, this news was reported to Claudius 2 by the guards who saw the activities taking place in the dungeon.
The enraged emperor ordered Valentine to be summoned before him. The emperor asked Valentine to respect his decision of not allowing the soldiers to get married as well as to give up his religion. To both of which Valentine politely declined. The emperor took this as an insult to his esteem and sentenced him to be executed. Just before the execution, St. Valentine wrote his last letter to Julia on the 14th of February and handed over the letter to Asterias to give to his daughter.
When she opened the letter her eyes were filled with tears and she saw his sign, "From your Valentine " . It was much later in 496A.D. that Pope Gelasius declared 14th February as an official holiday to honour St. Valentine.
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