Good Morning Gentle Readers,
The most popular legend surrounding St. Valentine’s Day dates to Third Century Rome under Claudius. It occurred to the emperor one bright and sunny day that young married men weren’t anxious to lay down their lives in service to the Roman Empire. Instead they were much more concerned with matters of love and family. In a fit of bureaucratic idiocy, the likes of which continue to modern times, Claudius simply banned marriage. In his naiveté, he assumed that absent the opportunity for love and marriage single men would dash to fill his thinning ranks of soldiers.
Fortunately for many, Valentine understood the uncomplicated truth that Claudius failed to recognize. In matters of the heart the law is meaningless. He continued to perform clandestine marriages, surreptitiously uniting young lovers until he was ultimately discovered, arrested, and executed.
Priests were permitted to be married in those long ago days and on the eve of his death it is said that he sent a love letter to his wife (in some tales it is a young girl he has fallen madly in love with) signing it simply, Your Valentine. With that simple act of devotion he bequeathed to us a custom that continues today.
May the romance of your Valentine’s celebration remind you of why your heart stutters when treated to the vision of that extraordinary someone in your life.
As Ever,
The Cupid Commonsewer
Photo Credit (unless otherwise noted): ©TWC, all rights reserved
