Saint Valentine is one of the most popular saint, perhaps because his name evokes love and lovers. It is celebrated every February 14, in which couples confess their mutual love.
The reason why Valentine is the patron of love and lovers is not a trivial matter, it has a lot of significance and evokes past times, when **Christians and Christianity suffered persecutions. Valentine's Day is therefore the day of an eternal and universal feeling, beyond what can be explained with simple words, beyond what can be said about it in a compendium on this passionate subject.
But, do you know the story of Valentine's Day?
It's an example of love and devotion to the neighbor, where all the essential elements are gathered to be worthy of the memory of this unbelieving humanity of the 21st century. Valentine was a Christian priest who had to live convulsive times in the Roman Empire under the power of Claudius II.
Emperor Claudius II made the absurd decision to forbid all marriages between young people because, in his opinion, they turned away from the war and the interest in being soldiers. In his own words Rome needed soldiers.
With this decision many young people were looking for the priest to secretly marry, something that Valentine did without any reservation but Claudius II learned of the marriages that were held in secret and ordered to be incarcerated. He only had to put a little pressure on the governor of Rome, Calpurnius, to support him. While in prison there was a jailer named Asterius who mocked Valentin, told him that: where is your god now ?, because it does not get you out of jail if you are in contact with God and he has all the power, ask him to cure my blind daughter?
The priest calmly told him to bring his daughter that night and Asterius did so. When the daughter arrived at the jail, Valentin put his hands over the girl's eyes and when he took his hands off her, the daughter recovered her sight. It was a miracle, a demonstration of God's power. Asterius and his daughter knelt before him crying and apologizing.
They converted to Christianity and despite requests for forgiveness from the people of Rome, finally Valentine was martyred and executed on February 14, 270 BC. As a tribute, the young Julia planted an almond tree next to the tomb of the saint. Since then the almond tree and its flower is the symbol of friendship and love.
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