should be set as a day to honour him – neatly converting the pagan traditions into a Catholic celebration.
The other possible St Valentine was also a priest who was imprisoned for helping Christians. Whilst imprisoned he fell in love with the daughter of his jailer, with his many secret notes and letters being signed ‘from your Valentine’. He was eventually beheaded.
But how did this religious celebration become so associated with romantic love, and far less associated with religion, or Saint Valentine himself? The most likely moment when romance became associated is in 1381 when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem in honour of the engagement between Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia. This poem, entitled ‘The Parliament of Fowls’ is the first known case of linking engagement, the mating season and Saint Valentine’s together, and may well have caused the increased importance and romantic connotations we see today.
Roughly a billion Valentines cards are sent each year – the vast majority of these being sent by women. The first known Valentine card was sent about 35 years after Chaucer wrote his poem. This card was sent by the Duke of Orleans to his wife during his imprisonment at the Tower of London in 1415. Another 80 years later King Henry VIII declared February 14th to be St Valentine’s Day by Royal Charter.
However, today the only religious associations still upheld are the original pagan ones, with modern day Wicca still enjoying the opportunity to celebrate love and fertility, although with rather less blood and whipping than in Roman times! The Feast of Lupercalia is still celebrated by many modern followers of Wicca, and although the sending of Valentine’s cards may not be a