Saint Valentine is not one man but two: a Roman priest and the Bishop of Terni, martyrs of the second half of the third century AD whose festivals both fall on February 14, and who are supposedly buried along the Via Flaminia. History gives no reason to link either with sexual love or romance. The stories of Valentine secretly marrying Christian couples against the emperor's command arose hundreds of years after their deaths, invented to strengthen ties to the medieval festival. The day's real roots are the Roman fertility festivals of Faunalia (February 13) and Lupercalia (February 15), honoring Faunus and Lupercus, with strange rites such as nearly naked priests slapping bystanders with animal-hide thongs and purifying women. Lupercalia endured until AD 494, when Pope Gelasius I replaced it with the Feast of the Purification, first kept on February 14. When the Catholic Church later moved that feast to February 2, the vacant February 14 was apparently filled arbitrarily with the two Valentines. Valentine's Day is therefore an ancient pagan festival under a very thin Christian veneer. God commands His people to shun pagan practices and to keep only His own feasts (Exodus 34; Deuteronomy 12:29-32), so those in His church do not keep it. Love for God is shown by keeping His commandments (I John 2:3, 5), not by compromising with the world's customs.

Valentine's Day, observed on February 14th, is a holiday that raises concerns for Christians due to its historical roots and associations. The Catholic Church, in 496, Christianized a pagan Roman fertility and purification feast dedicated to the god Lupercus by dedicating it to Saint Valentine. Historians are uncertain about the identity of Saint Valentine, suggesting he could be one of two men from the mid-3rd century: a Roman priest or a bishop of Terni in central Italy. The connection of Saint Valentine to romance and love remains unclear, with the best explanation being that his feast day coincided with the pagan festival of Lupercalia, leading to a blending of traditions and characteristics over time. This melding has resulted in a holiday that, despite its Christian overlay, retains elements and symbols that conflict with Christian values.

St. Valentine's Day is a pagan festival with a saintly label, not a Christian observance. Its roots predate Christianity in the Roman Lupercalia, held February 15 and beginning the evening before, in honor of Lupercus, the deified hero-hunter of wolves, who is of the same origin as Pan and Baal and is linked to Nimrod, the vicious hunter and abuser of women. The festival involved goat and dog sacrifices, scantily clad priests striking women with goatskin strips called februa, and licentious sexual indulgence among young people. It became tied to Venus, goddess of sexual love, and her son Cupid, whose naked, winged, arrow-shooting image still decorates Valentine cards. In the 5th century, Roman church leaders, seeking to win the pagan masses by relaxing standards and blending pagan customs with Christian ones (syncretism), kept the popular festival minus its most extreme excesses. In AD 496 Pope Gelasius renamed it St. Valentine's Day and moved it to February 14, replacing pagan names with saints' names in the lot-drawing. When Protestants rejected veneration of saints, the saint faded, yet Cupid, hearts and chance-drawn partners remained, so the day stayed as pagan and popular as ever. God forbids mixing pagan customs with His worship (Deuteronomy 12:29-31; I Corinthians 10:19-21) and commands the removal of all vestiges of paganism (Deuteronomy 12:2-4). Calling such days merely secular is faulty reasoning, since all of life is to honor God. No true Christian would be someone's Valentine or wish a Happy Valentine's Day.