According to this version, the celebration of Valentine's Day began in the Roman Empire in 270 BC, during the reign of Claudius II (268-270). During the war, Claudius apparently did not want soldiers to marry, because he believed that marriage made them weak and burdened with family life.
However, a clergyman named Valentin married the lovers secretly. When the ruler found out about it, the bishop was captured, subjected to severe torture and later beheaded for "anti-state" activities. On the night before his execution, which took place on February 14, 269, he wrote a love letter in verse to a girl, probably the daughter of a prison warden, whom he had befriended in prison, and signed it: "Your Valentine." Later, such letters were called "valentines".
In 496, Pope Gelasius I established Valentine's Day, which is celebrated on February 14. It is believed that he did this to supplant the pagan festival of the Roman "Lupercalia", which was celebrated annually on February 15. Instead, the image of St. Valentine was supposed to emphasize the spiritual dimension of love between a man and a woman.
In the 14th century, the priest Valentine was canonized for his good deeds. Since then, St. Valentine's Day is widely celebrated in the holy world, including in Ukraine. However, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine stated that Valentine's Day "does not correspond to the facts from the real life of Saint Valentine" and does not belong to the Orthodox tradition.
"According to one of the most popular legends, St. Valentine "married couples in love despite the ban of the cruel emperor Claudius II"... However, this legend contains a significant error in the chronology of events, because during the life of St. Valentine in the 3rd century, there was no special church wedding ceremony at all." , - say the OCU.
There they reminded that the Orthodox Church honors several saints named Valentine. The saint with whom Valentine's Day is associated is known in the church calendar as St. Valentine of Interam (Italy) from the city of Terni. However, in the Orthodox tradition, he is remembered on a completely different day - August 12. And the February 14 holiday, as noted in the OCU, is connected with a pagan celebration of Roman times, which was accompanied by a sacrifice in honor of fertility and motherhood.
The prototype of St. Valentine's Day is considered to be the pagan holiday of Lupercalia (from the Latin lupus — "wolf"). This is an ancient Roman festival of fertility, named after the goddess of "crazy" love and marriage, Juno, and the god Faunus (Lupercus is one of his nicknames), patron of herds, forests, fields and fertility.
Goats and goats were sacrificed during the lupercalia. Whips were made from the skins of slaughtered animals, with which naked men went into the city and beat everyone they met, including women. Married women willingly allowed themselves to be beaten, believing that it would cure them of infertility and guarantee an easy delivery.