One of the most divisive holidays has come around for its yearly appearance. Half of the world will be waiting in line at the grocery store, hands full of overly priced flowers, stuffed animals and/or sweets. The other half will be bashing on those people.
Yes, you guessed it: Valentine’s Day has arrived. Although society has formed many different opinions about Valentine’s Day, it is important to recognize when the heart-shaped chocolate boxes become more important than what it’s all truly about: love.
Few things exemplify this more than the legend behind the origin of this holiday, which dates all the way back to the third century.
Valentine’s Day is named after St. Valentine, a priest that the Catholic Church recognizes as a saint. At the time of his sainthood, Emperor Claudius II, also known as Claudius the Cruel, reigned over Rome, and because of the Imperial Crisis, he needed as many soldiers fighting as possible. Of course, he did the most logical thing he could think of: outlawing marriage for young men so they would solely focus on fighting.
A young priest named Valentine believed in matrimony and the freedom to marry, so he secretly performed marriages for soldiers in the middle of the night before they would head off to war.
Eventually, Claudius caught Valentine and sentenced him to death. While staying in his jail cell awaiting the days until his execution, he met the jailer’s daughter, a blind girl. After passing notes back and forth, his final note before his death was signed, “Love, your Valentine.” Upon hearing these final words, she was healed from her blindness.
This story, though tragic, reminds us all that it’s not about the number of gifts you give your significant other or about buying the most expensive bouquet of roses. Rather, it’s about sacrificing your wants for the sake of others.
What St. Valentine did was an act of true love. Let’s follow in his footsteps this Valentine’s Day and find ways to love our friends, family and significant others with the true, sacrificial love that St. Valentine perpetuated.
