St Valentine

I was inspired to write this poem because of the true nature of this brave Holy man, St Valentine. It tells the story of courage, compassion and resilience in the face of adversity but above all it is a love story. Love is eternal, it extends beyond this realm and in the end love was his salvation. St Valentine was executed in Rome on the 14th February in the third century AD. Saint Valentine was a priest who lived in the third century AD. He was sentenced to death but no criminal was he. The emperor of Rome, Claudius was his name, forbid his soldiers to marry throughout his reign. He feared a wife would make his men weak, their prospects for victory on the battle field bleak. These were his predictions for a soldier who is wed, to be laying in the dirt wounded or dead. Saint Valentine was a man with a higher vocation to heal the souls of men, from every station. In secret the couples he did wed, allowing soldiers to take a wife to their bed. Claudius was angry and he took his revenge, Valentine was to be executed and his life was to end. Imprisoned Valentine love he did find, his jailers daughter was both beautiful and kind, and what should have been his darkest of days turned out to be his happiest in so many ways. History tells us that when the day came for his life to end, an urgent letter to his girl he did send. This letter of true love he then did sign. From your Valentine.