It’s Valentine’s Day. Moonlight and roses, chocolate and Hallmark cards… ahhh, the power of love. But why do we love? What is that irresistible draw to the heart and soul of another human being?
For such a popular holiday, Valentine’s Day is marked by an interesting historical fact—we’re not really sure of its true origins. The actual St. Valentine is a martyred figure associated with three stories from the early Christian Church. In one, St. Valentine was a Christian priest thrown into a Roman prison for preaching his beliefs. On February 14, he was beheaded not only for disputing Roman deities but also for allegedly curing the jailer’s daughter of blindness—a miracle not looked kindly upon by the Romans trying to suppress the upstart religion. His farewell letter to the jailer’s daughter, signed “From your Valentine,” and the letters he received and sent from jail to the friends who cared for him supposedly began the exchange of notes of affection for this holiday. Continue reading
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