“Saints of Our Lives” features Team Busted Halo acting out the lives of the saints in soap opera fashion for your educational and entertainment pleasure. In this episode, we dramatize the life of St. Valentine!
Saint Valentine was a Roman priest during the third century. During this time, emperor Claudius II banned marriage among young people because he believed that unmarried soldiers fought better than married men.
Saint Valentine upheld the Church’s teaching that marriage is a Sacrament from God and began officiating marriages in secret. Emperor Claudius eventually found out what Valentine was up to and threw him in prison where he was eventually sentenced to death. Claudius also tried to convince Valentine to make sacrifices to pagan gods, but he refused and went on to share his testimony of faith with other prisoners.
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While in prison, one of the jailers told Valentine that his daughter was blind. Before his execution, he healed the jailer’s daughter and restored her sight. Saint Valentine was beheaded and declared a martyr of the Church because he gave up his life defending the Sacrament of Marriage.
Some historians believe that the tradition of Valentine’s Day love notes may have come from children who passed notes to Saint Valentine through the prison bars.