Valentine’s Day is all about a Catholic saint….or is it? Go back further and see why it falls on February 14th.
Today, Valentine’s Day is celebrated all around the world. We are told it’s a day to celebrate love, and people are encouraged to lavish their special someone with gifts, cards, and demonstrations of love. But where did this idea come from and why was it set on February 14th?
A quick search will tell you how the Catholic church named the day after a Catholic saint named Valentine. The church, however, has no reliable information on who this Valentine actually was.
“Although the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize St. Valentine as a saint of the church, he was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 because of the lack of reliable information about him.” Encyclopaedia Britannica
The fact is that it really doesn’t matter who or what the Catholic church picked as a reason for this mid February day, the candidate only had to satisfy two criteria. It had to have a similar theme and a similar time compared to the pagan festival it was about to usurp. The church had for centuries been taking well-known pagan festival days and replacing them with ‘Christian’ themes. This is historically documented, see my post ‘Why December 25th?’.
The thing that people don’t realize today is that the Catholic church is not actually Christian. They are deeply rooted in paganism as they are Roman in origin. They didn’t become followers of Christ, they simply used the Jewish scriptures and letters of the followers of the Jewish Messiah to continue their well-established pagan pattern of creating yet another false god religion. They literally had already made up hundreds of ‘gods’. This ‘Christian’ version wasn’t much different from the other gods they worshiped in the past. Catholicism is rife with pagan customs to this very day, customs that vehemently oppose the very Scriptures they claim to follow. That’s because they never intended to follow the Jewish God or His Messiah, they simply wanted a new way of worshiping pagan idols. The Roman Catholic pagans were so successful that their pagan-Judaic concoction they called ‘Christianity’ is one of the most dominant religions today.
So what was the pagan festival in February that the Catholics wanted to paint over with their new ‘Christianity’? You don’t have to research long to find out that on February 15th was a huge Roman festival which had been celebrated every year since before the founding of Rome.
The pagans thought winter to be a time of purification, this is where the name February comes from. The Latin word ‘februum’ means purification. During this time of purification there was a festival called Lupercalia. Plutarch, the Greek Historian, explains…
“As for the Lupercalia, judging by the time of its celebration, it would seem to be a feast of purification, for it is observed on the inauspicious days of the month of February, which name can be interpreted to mean purification, and the very day of the feast was anciently called Febrata.” Plutarch, Romulus, XXI.3
So even before Rome was founded, there was a pagan celebration of purification. Romulus took this celebration and added his own ideas to it. Because Romulus and his brother claimed to be raised by a she-wolf, the name was changed to Lupercalia deriving from ‘Lupus’ meaning wolf. You can see the Lupercalia name on the ancient Roman calendars, written on February 15th.
The Calendar below shows February as the month in the second column. The line the month is listed on also has a ‘k’ which means ‘kalends’ which indicates the first of the month. This is how the word ‘calendar’ was derived. You can see that on the 15th day Lupercalia is written as ‘LVPER’ alongside the day of their 8-day week which is designated as ‘D’ (8-day week is shown as ABCDEFGH)
Bauglir, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
There is an even better example on a copy of an ancient Roman Farmer’s Calendar which was made of a stone block. The full spelling of ‘LVPERCALIA’ is seen in the middle column of the left side labeled 'MENSIS FEBRAR', it is third from the bottom. The replica of the 1st century calendar is housed in the Museo della Civiltà Romana. See photo below.
https://thegetty.tumblr.com/post/139483464735/museum-of-artifacts-roman-farmers-calendar
Let’s take a look at what was involved with this festival so that you can understand why the Catholic church chose Valentine as the replacement.
To accompany Lupercalia, the Romans created an imaginary god called Lupercus who was a protector of shepherds against wolves. He was also a fertility god similar to Pan (Greek god of shepherds and flocks) and Faunus (Roman god of field, flocks, woods), all of which shared images of goat-gods.
The night before the feast was a time to declare love, propose marriage, or pledge affection for an entire year. The next day the festival started at the cave where Romulus and Remus were said to be suckled by the she-wolf. Young men of nobility who had entered into the priesthood were called ‘Luperci’ and known as ‘brothers of the wolf’.
“Each Lupercalia began with the sacrifice by the Luperci of goats and a dog, after which two of the Luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads were touched with a bloody knife, and the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk; the ritual required that the two young men laugh. The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the sacrificial animals and ran in two bands around the Palatine hill, striking with the thongs at any woman who came near them. A blow from the thong was supposed to render a woman fertile.” Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Luperci had two groups, one for Romulus and one for Remus. One young man of each group was anointed in blood and then after that all the Luperci would enjoy feasting and drinking. Later, the two groups would take long handles with the strips of goatskins attached (whips were called ‘februa’) and run drunken and naked through the streets whipping as many women as they could. Goatskin whipping was thought to improve fertility and help make an easy birth. Women of all ages would swarm the streets to gaze on the naked bodies of the young men running here and there, many stepping out to be whipped during the festivities. See the Lupercalia mosaic from the 3rd century below.
Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Roman poet, Ovid, shows how the people linked the ideology of purification to fertility. The idea is that if your sins are forgiven then you would be granted fertility. The ‘Flamen’ mentioned below is the name of a priestly class which would wear heavy woolen cloaks.
“Our Roman fathers gave the name of februa to instruments of purifications: even to this day there are many proofs that such was the meaning of the word. The pontiffs ask the King and the Flamen for woolen cloths, which in the tongue of the ancients had the name of februa. When houses are swept out, the toasted spelt and salt which the officer gets as means of cleansing are called by the same name. The same name is given to the bough, which, cut from a pure tree, wreathes with its leaves the holy brows of the priests. I myself have seen the Flamen’s wife (Flaminica) begging for februa; at her request for februa a twig of pine was given her. In short, anything used to cleanse our bodies went by that name in the time of our unshorn forefathers. The month is called after these things, because the Luperci purify the whole ground with strips of hide, which are their instruments of cleansing, or because the season is pure when once peace-offerings have been made at the graves and the days devoted to the dead are past. Our sires believed that every sin and every cause of ill could be wiped out by rites and purgation.” Roman poet Ovid (43BC-17AD), Fasti Book 2. 19-36
As was many pagan religious fertility activities, the whole event ended up with feasting, drunkenness, and a heavy focus on sex.
So you can see that the Catholics would have to find a ‘Christian’ occasion that involved elements of intense sexual focus to replace Lupercalia. This was essentially a huge sex holiday where after getting whipped the women would surely get right to having sex while they were suddenly fertile.
The church couldn’t seem to find anything scriptural that would fit this festival so instead they looked to stories of past priests that might fit the bill. They would need to have elements of love, and the date of their death needed to be close to February 15th. Records seem to indicate two possible Valentines, both with stories of love, and both Catholic priests who died on February 14th.
“Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness.” Encyclopaedia Britannica
“Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love.” Encyclopaedia Britannica
Rome legalized Christianity in 313CE, and eventually banned the old way of celebrating Lupercalia. It was Pope Gelasius I at the end of the 5th century who banned Lupercalia, and shortly after that the church dedicated February 14th to the martyred Saint Valentine.
The purpose was to channel all the pagan festivities into the new ‘Christian’ ideology while still letting the pagans celebrate their beloved holiday. The Vatican version of ‘Christianity’ was to be an umbrella that all pagans could be welcomed under without losing their pagan ways. This goal has not changed, as seen here in the Vatican’s marketing release which attempts to continue their pagan narrative that all religions are really the same as theirs. Watch the video here.
If the Catholic church was actually following the God of the Hebrews and His Christ, they would never push a doctrine that contradicts the Scriptures. But then again the real church of Christ would never push a calendar that is based on false god names either. Yet today the whole world runs on the pagan Roman Gregorian calendar and here we are living in the months and days that still proudly display false god names. For more information on the months, see my post Jewish month origins, Calendar clarity.
If you think the days of the pagans are hundreds of years past, think again. We are still in pagan Rome. We never left. This is why festivals like Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas are still going strong. Paganism is alive and well. In fact, just as it was in the times of Christ or in the times of Abraham, the whole world is practicing their current version of paganism.
Abraham saw that there was no fear of God in the people of the land, and that is the case today. The cities are full of idol’s temples (churches, temples, mosques, even synagogues because they deny Christ), in some places you see one on every block. The stores are full of seasonal idolatry, the people lapping it all up. Most are ignorant of the 7th day rest and requirements which is why businesses stay open. People’s mouths are full of lewd talk and course language. Every law of God, every instruction of Christ, is tossed to the ground and trampled on… and the people love it.
Beneath every Catholic holiday, if one lifts the veil of deception, one will find a rotten foundation of paganism on which the peoples morality is built. Make no mistake, we are living in Sodom. And just as everything was motoring along up until the fire began to fall from heaven, so will it be again.
If you think Valentine’s Day is a harmless holiday then you are ignorant of the only true and living God, and that ignorance will lead to a shocking end.
I hope this post has opened your eyes to what is happening around you and in you, and will lead you to repentance while it is still available. For more information on what REAL repentance is, see my post What is repentance?
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