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Like other days of celebration within our culture, Valentine's Day has its origins in pagan times. In ancient Rome this feast day was known as Lupercalia, the "feast of Lupercus."

Each year in the middle of February the Romans honored the god Lupercus, giving him thanks for protecting them from the wolves which roamed the woods. The people feasted, danced and played games. When the young men wanted partners for the dancing and games, they drew names of girls from bowls. Sometimes they became sweethearts.

When Christianity came to Rome, the Christian Romans put aside their belief in Lupercus, but because Lupercalia was a happy time, and they did not want to give it up, the feast of Lupercalia was replaced with the feast of St. Valentine.

Although Christianity had come to Rome, it was not accepted byt he Roman Emperor Claudius II, who considered himself a god. Many times people were arrested and sometimes killed for believing in Jesus instead of the Emperor.

One year a young couple, Julius and Octivia, who loved each other very much, wanted to get married. Since soldiers in that city were not allowed to get married, they decided to wed secretly. They went to a very kind priest who lived outside of the city, Friar Valentine.

When Julius and Octavia arrived at Fr. Valentine's home, they found a beautiful flower garden. Fr. Valentine was surrounded by little children who were helping him with his plants and flowers. As the children left, Fr. Valentine gave each of them a bouquet of flowers to take with them.

One day the children went to the garden to visit with Fr. Valentine. When they arrived they found the flowers trampled and the house empty. Fr. Valentine had been taken away to jail because he believed that Jesus was God.

The children decided to care for Fr. Valentine's garden. They knew that would make him happy. Every day some of the children would take him flowers from his garden, including the jailor's blind daughter.

Before Fr. Valentine was put to death for believing in God, he prayed to Jesus asking him to heal the jailor's daughter of her blindness. She was healed! Before Fr. Valentine died, he wrote her a good-bye letter and signed it "From Your Valentine."

Ever since then, February 14, the day Fr. Valentine died, became a day of celebrating. When we give and receive gifts, flowers and cards on St. Valentine's day we remember the kindness of Fr. Valentine showed by showing our love for others.

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou are more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:

But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide and made my pains his prey.
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain essay
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
"Not so," quoth I; "let baser things devise
To lie in dust, but you shall live by fame;
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write you glorious name:
Where, whenas Death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. 

I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. 
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; 
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. 

I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. 
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath, 
Smiles, tears, of all my life!--and, if God choose, 
I shall but love thee better after death.