Who Was Saint Valentine?

Tradition tends to favour the Roman Valentinus, a priest who died in the year 270, as the origin of the feast day, which, incidentally, was dropped from the Catholic calendar in 1969.

According to one version of the tale, he defied the emperor Claudius II by continuing to marry young couples long after marriage had been outlawed by imperial decree, Claudius having got it into his head that the shortage of recruits to the army was due to the fact that married men made reluctant soldiers.

Very timely, as modern couples now marry in defiance of emperor Bushiass II (self-proclaimed "wartime emperor" and reluctant solider), who seeks to outlaw marriage by constitutional decree.