Happy Valentine's Day!

He is the patron saint of love, young people and happy marriages.

I researched the origins of Valentine's Day and there are several possibilities of how this holiday came about.  I've learned there are a couple different stories of how he became St. Valentine.  One story was he was a roman who refused to give up his christian faith and was martyred for it in the year 270AD, another was that he was a temple priest who was jailed for marrying and helping Christians.  Interestingly, during his imprisonment he befriended the Roman Emperor Claudius.  This temple priest tried to convert Claudius to Christianity and was beheaded for it. 

History shows there was a St. Valentine when archaeologists discovered a buried church dedicated to Saint Valentine whether he was a priest or not.  Pope Gelasius makred February 14 a day to honor his martyrdom in 496 AD.  It wasn't until the 1400s that this story of St. Valentine was written down for prosperity.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=159