Happy St. Valentine's Day....

Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 th each year. 

It is celebrated in many countries around the world. 

St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named “Valentinus.”  

Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later martyrologies. 

A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry...  

...and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire.   

According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius.

An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.  

The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery and sending greeting cards known as "valentines"  

Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. 

The tradition of Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s... 

...when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them.  

There was also a conventional belief in Europe during the Middle Ages that birds chose their partners in the middle of February.

Thus the day was dedicated to love, and people observed it by writing love letters and sending small gifts to their beloved. 

  

Whatever your beliefs are regarding the origin & history of 

St. Valentine's Day...

...here's wishing you the sweetest one!