Every February, explainers trace Valentine's Day to a Roman fertility festival and to a martyred priest who signed a love note "From your Valentine." The earliest text that ties St. Valentine's Day to choosing a mate is a Chaucer poem about birds from the 1380s. And what is often called the oldest surviving English valentine letter, from 1477, was written by a young woman worrying about her dowry.
The story as it is told
Rome, in the third century. The Emperor Claudius II has outlawed marriage for young men, and a priest named Valentine marries couples in secret anyway. He is arrested.
In prison, the story goes, Valentine falls in love with a young girl, possibly his jailor's daughter. Before he dies he writes her a letter and signs it: "From your Valentine." It is the first valentine ever sent.
Two centuries later, the church takes on an older rival, a wild Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia, held on February 15. Pope Gelasius declares February 14 St. Valentine's Day, and by the end of the 5th century the old festival is outlawed.
What we can confirm
History.com hedges these as legends, and says "Modern scholars dispute" the Lupercalia link.
The medieval saint's life has no romance. The Golden Legend; Caxton's English, 1483) gives the standard medieval Valentine. He's a Roman priest arrested by "Claudius the emperor" for refusing to worship idols. In custody he cures the provost's blind daughter: "by his prayers the daughter of the provost received again her sight, and anon all they of the house were converted. After, the emperor did do smite off the head of S. Valentine, the year of our Lord two hundred and eighty." There are no secret weddings, no love affair and no farewell note. The jailer's daughter is there, but as a healing miracle. The romantic versions come later, and no early source for them has been found.
Chaucer makes it a mating day. In the Parlement of Foules), Nature gathers the birds: "For this was on seynt Valentynes day, / Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make" (ll. 309 to 310, Skeat's text). Nature reminds them, "Ye know wel how, seynt Valentynes day, / By my statut and through my governaunce, / Ye come for to chese... Your makes" (ll. 386 to 389), and the birds' closing roundel begins "Now welcom somer, with thy sonne softe" and hails "Seynt Valentyn, that art ful hy on-lofte" (ll. 680 to 683). Skeat's note: "Birds were supposed to choose their mates on St. Valentine's day (Feb. 14); and lovers thought they must follow their example." Chaucer's lines are the earliest securely datable link between the day and courtship found here. Contemporaries such as Oton de Grandson and John Clanvowe wrote similar Valentine poems.
Scholarly debate. Henry Ansgar Kelly (Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, Brill, 1986) argues that Chaucer may have meant a spring feast of a different Valentine, Valentine of Genoa (May 3), which would fit the poem's "welcom somer". Skeat (2nd ed., 1899) relays the older theory that the poem honors Richard II's betrothal to Anne of Bohemia, "written on or about St. Valentine's Day, 1381".
Where Lupercalia came from. Skeat's note shows the Roman link is an antiquarian suggestion: "Mr. Douce thinks the custom of choosing valentines was a survival from the Roman feast of the Lupercalia"). No opened source has Gelasius naming February 14 for Valentine as a replacement for Lupercalia. History.com repeats the claim but also notes that modern scholars dispute the connection.
The oldest English valentines in the record. In February 1477, Dame Elizabeth Brews wrote to John Paston, who was courting her daughter: "uppon Fryday is Sent Volentynes Day, and every brydde chesyth hym a make", a near quotation of Chaucer. She invited him to come Thursday night and stay until Monday to settle the match with her husband. Margery Brews then wrote to "my ryght welebeloved Voluntyne". Her second letter explains that her father will give no more than "an C li. and l. marke" (100 pounds and 50 marks) and closes: "I wold be the meryest mayden on grounde... Be your Voluntyne, Margery Brews." Gairdner's note dates the letters to 1477 because "St. Valentine's Day (the 14th) fell on Friday." The marriage went ahead. Printed and handmade valentine cards came much later. Esther Howland's lace-paper valentines in Massachusetts date to about 1855 (Met).
The facts
- Golden Legend (Caxton tr.): Valentine heals the provost's blind daughter and is beheaded by Claudius in "two hundred and eighty"; no romance
- Chaucer, Parlement of Foules ll. 309 to 310, 322, 386 to 389, 680 to 683
- Skeat's note credits the Lupercalia idea to Douce
- Paston Letters nos. 896 to 898 (Gairdner), Feb 1477: "Sent Volentynes Day... every brydde chesyth hym a make"; "Be your Voluntyne"
- Chaucer's lines viewed in the 1904 Riverside Press printing (IA page n19: "For this was on Seynt Volantynys day")
- Esther Howland valentine, c. 1855, Met 57.565
Sources
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parlement of Foules, in The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol. 1, ed. W. W. Skeat (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd ed., 1899), with notes (Gutenberg #43089): gutenberg.org
- Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, tr. William Caxton (1483), Temple Classics ed. F. S. Ellis, Vol. 3, "The Life of S. Valentine" (Fordham Medieval Sourcebook): sourcebooks.fordham.edu
- The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422 to 1509, ed. James Gairdner, Vol. 5, letters 896 to 898 (Gutenberg #42239): gutenberg.org
- Chaucer, The Parlement of Foules (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin / Riverside Press, 1904), Internet Archive: archive.org
- History.com, "Valentine's Day: Origins & Holiday Traditions" (popular version): history.com
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Esther Howland, Valentine with lace paper and faux pearls, c. 1855, 57.565: metmuseum.org
- Wikimedia Commons, Bodleian Fairfax 16 f.120r file page: commons.wikimedia.org)_Chaucer%27s_Parlement_of_Foules_c1450.png
- Bodleian Libraries IIIF manifest, MS. Fairfax 16 (rights statement): iiif.bodleian.ox.ac.uk