Christina Spraggins
“Valentine’s Day is a day we celebrate love whether that is self-love, love of your friendship, or your significant other,” stated DSU senior, Meleah Davis. Another DSU student, Freshman Anaya Balckon, said “I think Valentine’s Day is a great time to show you care about someone and it’s also a great time to show love to yourself.”
For years, February 14th has been a day that has been dedicated to commercial treats such as flowers, chocolates, jewelry, and many other pieces of adornment. Despite all of these, many are not aware of the specific origin of this holiday.
There are many different stories of how people celebrated Valentines Day, but we can pinpoint who the day was named after. In the 8th century, the day was recorded as the feast of saints and was named after the Roman Saint — Saint Valentine.
“He was a priest in the late 3rd century in Rome, who the day was martyred for, for his faith” stated Author and Priest Father Dwight Longenecker.
Saint Valentine is the patron Saint of lovers, epileptics, and beekeepers. Saint Valentine was a priest who lived in ancient Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius the second. During this time period of 268-270, Rome was extremely unruly and plagued with much poverty, promiscuity, and horrific crimes.
During the emperor’s reign, he issued a law whereby marriage was no longer legal. This law was made because under Roman law, if you were a married man, you were not forced to go to war. By making marriage illegal, it allowed Rome to issue and draft many more men to fight.
Going against this law, Saint Valentine decided to secretly marry people. He was arrested and brought to Rome. He was then executed on the 14th of February , in 269.
The Roman Church decided to connect the day to Valentine and how he cared for people to be able to be loved and to be married.