St. Valentines time...

St. Valentines Day is the festival of lovers and is celebrated on 14 th February. People send an anonymous card to the person they would like to be their girlfriend or boyfriend. St. Valentine was an early Christian who was put to death for his beliefs. He is said to have left a message for his beloved on the wall of his prison cell, signed Your Valentine. Who was St. Valentine? Read the text to find out! Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine and Im a priest. I lived in Rome during the third century. It was a long time ago! Rome was ruled by an emperor. His name was Claudius. I didnt really like Emperor Claudius and let me tell you I wasnt the only one! A lot of people in Rome also hated him. Claudius wanted to have a very big army. He wanted the men to be volunteers but of course I didnt want to fight. Many other men like me didnt want to fight in wars. They didnt want to leave their wives and families. Nobody was volunteering and that made Claudius furious! So what happened, do you ask? Claudius had this crazy idea: men didnt want to go because they were married so lets forbid marriages. As simple as that! Young people thought this new law was very cruel. And i well I hated it! One of my favourite things was to marry people and see them happy! So I continued with the marriages but I had to keep this a secret! One night the bride, the groom and I heard soldiers footsteps and I was caught! They put me in jail and they told me I was going to die! Many young people came to see me in prison. They threw flowers and cheerful notes up to my window. My prison guards daughter visited me a lot and we became good friends. On the day I was to die, February 14, I left a note to thank her for her friendship. I signed it: love from your Valentine. Now every year on this day people remember and they think about love and friendship.

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