- [Narrator] For many people,

Valentine's Day is all about romance.

- If you may ask a person in the street

what is Valentine's Day mean to you?

All it means is heart-shaped boxes

of chocolates and a nice dinner

with your beloved, and sending cards

and so forth.

And if they did knowabout a Saint Valentine,

they probably wouldn't realize that he was

a priest in the late third century in Rome

who was actually martyred for the faith.

Very often, legends will develop

from real facts.

There's that littlephrase in JRR Tolkien's

Lord of the Rings where he says,

"History became legendand legend became myth."

- [Narrator] The legend of Saint Valentine

is a story that is rooted in fact.

- There are three stories surrounding him,

and they all agree on a number of issues.

It seemed that he was born in 226,

in a tiny little city called Terni,

in Umbria, in Italy.

And he was either a priest or a bishop.

Valentine, apparently,lived during the reign

of the Emperor Claudius II, he's sometimes

referred to as Claudius Gothicus.

Now this emperor didnot reign for very long,

maybe a year and a half.

Rome at this point in time was really

a cesspool of immoral behavior.

Pedophilia was rife, sexualpromiscuity was rife.

And one of the great witnesses

of the early church is that they stood up

for the value of a Godly marriage,

where sexuality was channeled into its

God-given boundaries, and it would become

a witness of what endearinglove could look like.

- [Narrator] During hisreign, Claudius issued

an edict that made marriage illegal.

- There was an invasion of Goths

towards Rome and theyneeded a lot of people

to go to war.

And it seemed that therule was that once you

were married, you were given freedom not

to go to war and Valentine would not only

convert the people, but secretly marry

them so that they could, indeed,

stay at home.

- [Narrator] Valentine was arrested

and brought to Rome.

While he was being held captive,

he presented a Gospel to his jailer,

the Judge Asterius.

- So the judge said to him, "Well if this,

"indeed, is true, I want you to prove it."

And he brought one ofhis adopted daughters,

who happened to be blind,the one legend says,

and what happened is that Valentinus,

or Valentine, laid hishands upon this girl

and she was healed immediately.

- [Narrator] Anotherlegend says that before he

was executed, he left a note for the girl

signed, "Your Valentine."

Some say this led to the practice

of sending Valentines on February 14th,

the day he was beheaded.

- All the legends seem to agree

that Valentine was martyred on the 14th

of February in 269.

- Therefore, that was the day associated

with him when the church would celebrate

and thank God for his life.

- [Narrator] So Valentine'sDay didn't start

out as a romantic holiday.

- We do need to recognize that this day,

the 14th of February,was already connected

with Valentine from the fourth century,

already from that time onward.

And right from thebeginning, this celebration

had more to do than just a celebration

of romantic love.

And the church's commitment to Valentine,

to honor this exampleof Christian marriage

and sacrifice, andmartyrdom, and the healing

of other people, andthe spread of the Gospel

was from the beginning, a commitment

to what Christian marriage could be like

in our world and themessage that it brings

to a broken world.

- [Narrator] Valentine'sDay represents more

than flowers and candy.

It's about what's in our hearts

and the heart of Christ.

- When we see thosehearts on Valentine's Day,

we can remember thatthat heart is, also has

some connections backto the heart of Jesus,

and to God's love for us.

And we can remember thatthe source of all love,

and the source of self-sacrifice and love

for each other, is rooted in God's love,

and in the witness that Saint Valentine

actually made for that love.

- For Christians,marriage is more than just

the union between a man and a woman.

For Christians, marriage is a holy parable

of the love of Christ towards His church.

It's a visible sermon about what holiness

and purity could look like in our lives.

We should celebrate whattrue, sacrificial love

looks like in a broken world.

And ultimately, it should be a day

that we celebrate thecommitment of Christ,

who gave his life for His church.

It should be a day of evangelism.

It should be a day where we celebrate

the power of true loveto change our world.

It is a Christian holiday.