How did Valentine's Day actually originate?
Not an easy question to answer. You could say that Valentine's Day is a fusion of Christian, Roman, Germanic, and nowadays also national traditions.
Valentine?
But there is a lot of uncertainty about the origin of the celebration. It is not even certain which Valentine the celebration is named after. It is clear that Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as the day of Saint Valentine in the year 496. But which Valentine? There is no biographical document about him. And there are various (unclear and unprovable) stories…
A frequently heard story revolves around a Roman priest who perished during the Christian persecutions under Emperor Claudius II Gothicus (268-270). The priest is said to have refused to give up his faith. Instead, he even tried to convert the emperor. This Valentine eventually died as a martyr. Shortly before his execution, he is said to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer. Convenient because then he could at least be canonized. Without a miracle, no saint is the rule at the Vatican.
A bishop from Terni is also often mentioned. He was beheaded in 273 during the Christian persecutions of Emperor Aurelian. Little is known about him either. It is not ruled out that it is the same person.
Roman fertility festival
Since the eighteenth century, it has sometimes been said that the Vatican introduced the feast day of Saint Valentine to replace the so-called Lupercalia. This was an old fertility festival in honor of the Roman god Lupercus (or Faunus). The old festival was quite popular, even among Christians, and Pope Gelasius I wanted to put an end to it – so the story goes. He therefore decided to introduce a new, responsible celebration around the same day. A celebration in honor of Saint Valentine. However, there is no evidence for this. The pope did write a long letter in which he forbade the faithful from celebrating the Lupercalia. But in that letter, no Valentine was mentioned at all. There is thus no evidence for a connection between the Roman and the Christian celebration.
Myths and uncertainty
Valentine's card from 1909To create a link between a historical 'Saint Valentine' – of whom we do not know exactly who he was – and the love traditions of February 14, various myths and legends emerged around 1900. Saint Valentine is said to have brought couples together and performed marriages, with or without flowers. This was not very convincing, and because Saint Valentine was ultimately mainly associated with uncertainty, the Catholic Church decided in 1969 to no longer celebrate February 14 as his feast day.
Source: https://historiek.net/geschiedenis-van-valentijnsdag/47982