Valentines Day

Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various connections with February 14 is described as,a priest in Rome or a bishop or a martyr in Africa

The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain. The popularity of Valentine cards grew in the twentieth century, where many Valentine cards are now general greeting cards rather than declarations of love.

           

In Spain Valentine's Day is known as "San Valentín" and is celebrated the same way as in the U.K, although in Catalonia it is largely superseded by similar festivities of rose and/or book giving on La Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George's Day).