Valentine's Day

San valentin.

Valentine of Terni.
Day celebration on February 14
Held since XIV century
Portrait of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), author unknown, in the book Regiment of princes (1412) Thomas Occleve (1368-1426).
Valentine's Day is a traditional celebration that has been assimilated by the Roman Catholic Church with the appointment of Valentine as the patron of enamorados.1 It became popular in many countries, and in modern times especially in Anglo-Saxon expanding to other places from the twentieth century mainly day loving couples express their love and affection to each other. It is celebrated on February 14, feast day of St. Valentine. In some countries known as Valentine's Day and in others as the day of love and friendship.

The feast of St. Valentine was declared for the first time around the year 498 by Pope Gelasius I. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the saint whose feast fell on the day now known as Valentine's Day was possibly one of the three martyrs executed Roman times, the first two in the second half of the third century, during the reign of emperor Claudius II:

A Roman physician who became a priest and married soldiers, even though it was forbidden by the emperor Claudius "Gothic" that he considered incompatible with the profession of arms. The emperor ordered beheading in 270. Very venerated in France, in the diocese of Jumièges.2