Valentine’s Day - The Story of Saint Valentine

We hope you will like the story of Saint Valentine!
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A long time ago, in the 3rd century AD, the Roman empire was dictated by Claudius the 2nd. He was an ambitious emperor who did not care at all about his people. Because of his harsh leadership, he was often called Claudius the cruel.
His ambition to win over neighboring lands had led him to fight many battles in the 3rd century. Claudius lost a lot of soldiers to those wars and started losing subsequent wars as he didn’t have enough men in the army. Upon losing one such war, due to lack of soldiers, Claudius ordered his commander in chief to recruit a huge number of soldiers in the army. Following the orders of Emperor Claudius, his commander-in-chief made an announcement and invited young men to join the army.
On the day of recruitment, the commander-in chief, waited for the whole day, but none of the young men turned up to join the army. So he went personally to a group of young men and invited them to join the army…..but they refused, saying that they wanted to stay with their family.
Emperor Claudius who was already of the opinion that unmarried men were better warriors, became furious. He made an announcement that marriages would be prohibited in his kingdom, and the brides and grooms who would defy the orders would be imprisoned for a lifetime.
On the very next day of announcement, all the priests stopped conducting marriages. The brides and grooms, who defied the orders were jailed immediately.
Emperor Claudius started recruiting soldiers forcefully, poor young men had no option, but to bow down to his wishes.
So, marriages were stopped, and the young couples in love, just had one wish, to marry their loved ones before joining the army.
It is said that heroes are created during times of struggle. One such hero was Saint Valentine. He conducted secret weddings to help the couples in love get together.
Very soon Saint Valentine became a hero among the young couples and a savior of true love. But his popularity became his greatest enemy. As soon as the emperor came to know about Saint Valentine, he sent orders to arrest him and present him in the court.
Saint Valentine believed in what he was doing. He knew that getting the loved ones together was noble work, and God wanted him to do that.
Saint Valentine was arrested and presented in the court, where Emperor Claudius asked Saint Valentine to admit his mistake. But Saint Valentine believed that he was doing God’s work by helping the loved ones unite, and there was nothing wrong in it. Saint Valentine’s rebellious words were intolerable to the emperor, so he announced imprisonment and death sentence to Saint Valentine. Saint Valentine, was firm yet polite, he accepted the death sentence, but did not bow down to the emperor. All the days that Saint Valentine was in prison, young couples would gather in front of the jail, to show their support to him.
God had his own plans for Saint Valentine. It so happened, that the jailer of the prison, once asked Saint Valentine if he could teach the word of God to the jailer’s daughter Julia.
Saint Valentine respected the jailer’s wishes and agreed to teach his daughter. Julia was blind since birth, every day she visited the jail, where Saint Valentine taught her the word of God. Julia started feeling the beautiful world through Valentine’s teachings and wanted to see it. One day, she expressed her wish to Saint Valentine, and he said, that God always takes care of the ones who believe in him.
To everyone’s amazement, a streak of divine light brightened the room, and Julia couldn’t believe what happened to her…..yes she could see the beautiful world that she had always wanted to see, after meeting Valentine. And then she expressed her love for Valentine.
But sadly, the day when Saint Valentine was to be hanged, was not far. As the day of the punishment arrived, Valentine was called to the court once again. The emperor told Saint Valentine to admit his mistake, and he would be saved from the punishment.
Valentine did not agree, but he was sad about not being able to spend enough time with Julia. That evening he wrote a letter to Julia, probably the most beautiful letter that was ever written….it ended with the words “your Valentine”.The next morning was the day of punishment…..February the 14th 270 AD……Saint Valentine died …….but all the love that he had spread blossomed forever…he sacrificed his life to make sure that the young couples who loved each other were bonded in matrimony.
Absolutely, it’s a story of believing in love, the goodness of love….a story of believing in God. Saint Valentine gave his life to love, but his message lives with us even today.
So what are you waiting for, express your love to your loved ones, Remember ….its a day of believing in what you do…

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