The Violent, Brutal Murder Behind Valentine’s Day [Video]

February 14, Valentine's Day, is a day for people to show their significant others how much they love em. However, did you ever stop and wonder why February 14 has been chosen as Valentine's Day?

Who Was St. Valentine?

The history of St. Valentine is a complicated one, but the history of Valentine's Day is a bit clearer, and also quite gruesome. We'll get to that in a minute.

Valentine was either a priest or bishop in Rome, who lived during the third century after Christ according to scotsman.com. History is conflicted as to whether Valentine was definitively a priest or bishop as there is documentation seeming to support both.

Roman emperor Claudius II realized that married men were granted freedom from war. This led to many men scrambling to get married so they wouldn't have to fight in the Roman army.

In an effort to put a stop to this, Claudius II outlawed marriage and the act of performing Christian marriages.

Claudius II also ruled against any Christian teachings, wanting everyone to worship him instead.

Valentine continued teaching Christianity and performing wedding ceremonies in secret against the emperor's orders.

Clearly, you can already begin to figure out why Valentine and Claudius II developed a few issues with one another.

Although they may have been at odds politically and religiously, according to scotsman.com, the two eventually became friends.

Well, friends might be a stretch because at one point Valentine tried to convert Claudius to Christianity.

Claudius immediately condemned Valentine to death...a very brutal, horrible death.

Valentine was condemned to a brutal death even though he allegedly performed a miracle giving one of Claudius's adopted blind daughters her sight back.

However, right before his death, Valentine wrote a letter to Claudius' daughter whom he had allegedly given sight and signed it "From Your Valentine" according to scotsman.com.

The Death Of St. Valentine

As mentioned above, Valentine's death was a brutal one.

From scotsman.com -

"He was beaten with clubs and stones, then beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate in Rome before being buried at a Christian cemetery on the Via Flaminia."

The date of Valentine's execution was February 14, 269 AD

In 496 AD on February 14, Pope Gelasius I established "The Feast of Saint Valentine".

"The Feast of Saint Valentine" eventually became Saint Valentine's Day, and then ultimately Valentine's Day.

So there you go, the bloody, gnarly, brutal beginnings of Valentine's Day.