The Bloody Origins of Valentine’s Day: Love, Death and a Severed Head
10th February 2025
Every February 14th, Valentine’s Day lumbers back onto the calendar like an overstuffed teddy bear, bringing with it candlelit dinners, mass-produced greeting cards, and a frantic rush for last-minute petrol station roses. Couples dutifully cram into chain restaurants, clutching discount vouchers, sipping prosecco and trying not to think too hard about the creeping existential dread that lurks just beneath the surface of their relationship.
But who do we have to thank for this annual spectacle of forced romance?
The real Saint Valentine was a 3rd-century Roman priest—or possibly the bishop of Terni, or maybe someone else entirely. There were at least three contenders for the title, and their stories have blurred together over time like a badly written rom-com. What we do know is that he lived between 226 AD and 269 AD and spent his days ministering to persecuted Christians—many of whom were thrown to the lions for the entertainment of bloodthirsty crowds.
Valentine met a grislier fate than an overpriced set menu: he was beheaded on February 14th and buried on the Via Flaminia, just outside Rome. His execution made enough of an impression that Pope Gelasius I later declared the date the Feast of St. Valentine in 496 AD, commemorating him as a Christian martyr.
But where does love fit into all of this?
One popular legend claims that Valentine defied Emperor Claudius II’s ban on young soldiers marrying, secretly performing Christian weddings and possibly handing out parchment hearts as a symbol of God’s love. Another suggests he smuggled letters between imprisoned lovers, an early pioneer of romance under oppression.
Yet, for a religion that often preaches self-denial, the idea of a patron saint of love is an odd contradiction. Some scholars believe that the association between Valentine’s Day and romance has less to do with history and more with medieval poets taking creative liberties. Geoffrey Chaucer, in his 1380 poem Parliament of Foules, wrote about “Saint Valentine’s day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.” The link between Valentine’s Day and love may owe more to poetic imagination than to the priest’s actual deeds.
From Chaucer to Shakespeare to John Donne, the idea snowballed and by the Victorian era, Valentine’s Day had evolved into the grand festival of sentimental cards and dubious poetry we know today.
For those seeking a more visceral connection to the man behind the myth, Saint Valentine’s flower-crowned skull is on display at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. His remains are scattered across Madrid, while his heart—because of course it is—rests in Dublin’s Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church, drawing hopeful romantics in search of true love.
So, the next time you find yourself staring blankly at your Valentine’s dinner, remember: this whole tradition began with a beheading.
Cheers to that.
