Valentine’s Day actually started more than 1,500 years ago.

According to legend, Valentine was a priest who defied the orders of the Roman emperor Claudius and continued to perform marriages. It seems that Claudius realized no young men wanted to join his army because they didn’t want to leave their wives and sweethearts. When it was discovered that Valentine was still performing marriages in secret, he was sentenced to death. Valentine allegedly cured the jailer’s daughter of blindness, and on the night before his execution, sent a note to her signed “from your Valentine.” He reportedly died on Feb. 14, 269 A.D.

In 496 A.D., February 14 was named by Pope Gelasius to honor St. Valentine.

The first Valentines are credited to Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London during the 1400s where he wrote romantic verses that he sent to his wife.

A woman named Esther Howland is credited with sending the first Valentine in the United States.

The United States Postal Service is credited with advancing the popularity of sending Valentines when the penny postcard was introduced in the mid 1800s. Before that, sending mail was too expensive for the average person, because at the time, the person who RECEIVED the letter paid the postage and not the person who SENT the letter.

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