Valentine, Martyr at Rome, c.269
14 February -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Martyrs, page 464
Valentine was a priest or a bishop of Terni who was martyred
at Rome under the Emperor Claudius. The connection of this
celebration with lovers seems to be either as the
traditional day in mediæval belief when birds mated,
or more likely as being linked with the pagan Lupercalia
festival in Rome, which occurred on the Ides of February.
For Christians, the day marks an acknowledgement of an
all-loving God who blesses those who love one another, as
Jesus implored his own disciples so to do.