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The Legend of the First Valentine

by Traute Klein, biogardener

Just before his execution on February 14, 270 AD, the beloved physician, Valentinus, sent a message which brought light into a blind girl's life. It was the first Valentine ever sent in this story of sacrificial, healing love.

A Story of Sacrificial, Healing Love

How much of this story is true, how much of it is legend, and how much of it is my imagination and interpretation, you will never know. It makes no difference. The truth still remains that a loving sacrifice can bring light into darkness.

Valentinus was a third-century Roman physician who administered natural remedies, as was the practice in those days. He was much loved by his patients, partly because he took great care to improve the flavors of unpalatable remedies by mixing them with taste enhancers like honey.

I feel a special kinship with Dr. Valentine, because my family has been relying on natural remedies for ,might say that I have become my family's natural remedy encyclopedia.

Valentine was also a practicing Christian priest and prayed for his patients' healing. Here I also feel a kinship with him, because my family has practiced the laying on of hands for healing for as long as I remember.

Unfortunately, Christian practices were not permitted under the reign of Claudius II, and Valentine was arrested.

It so happened that the jailor's blind daughter was one of Dr. Valentine's patients. It must have broken the jailor's heart to have to lead to his death the man who he had hoped would cure his daughter's blindness.

Just before his execution, Valentine handed the jailor a note for the blind girl. In the note, he had wrapped a yellow crocus, the source of one of his healing herbs, saffron. As the jailor's blind daughter opened the note, her sight was restored and the first flower she saw was the yellow crocus which rivals the sun in its brightness.

On the note, the physician had penned the following message:

"From your Valentine."

It was the beloved physician's last message and the world's first valentine. The day was February 14, 270 AD.

Valentinus died so that we could celebrate Valentine's Day, the day of sacrificial, healing love.