40 Facts About the Holiday of Love

40 Facts About the Holiday of Love

D.G. Hewitt - September 2, 2019

40 Facts About the Holiday of Love
Other saints were more closely linked with love for 1,000 years before Valentine. Wikimedia Commons.

30. For more than 1,000 years, saints other than Valentine were associated with love and romance

It was almost 1,000 years after the very first Feast Day of Saint Valentine that the day became a celebration of love, however. Up until the 13th century, the patron saint of love was Saint Anthony, whose feast day is celebrated in June. Alternatively, single men and women would pray to Saint Gregory – whose feast day is observed in March – in the hope of finding a romantic partner. However, Valentine had more celebrity fans than Anthony or Gregory, meaning he soon became known as the ultimate Christian symbol of romance.

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