The History of Valentine's Day

I have long believed in the legend that Valentine's day was celebrated because of the Christian Saint Valentine who secretly married Roman soldiers because the king had forbid marriage since he thought that single men made better soldiers. Legend also says that while imprisioned (by the Romans for performing the marriages) Valentine fell in love with the guard's daughter and his last note was addressed to her expressing his love and signed "your Valentine". I like that story, It makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. Perhaps that's why it was "made up" to go along with Valentine's day. Unfortunately, I was doing some digging and came across several sites (history.com, stvalentinesday.org, and the ever fruitful wikipedia.com) These sites don't dissolve the legend, but they do state that it cannot be proved or disproved. One thing is for certain, one of the three Saint Valentines was put to death on Feb 14th 279ad. The holiday, like most, seems to be a combination of former holidays. It became a Christian celebration of love instead of a festival to the Roman gods and goddesses. There were many customs during the Roman festivals honoring their dieties of fertility and agriculture as February seemed to mark the beginning of spring. Personally, I prefer flowers and candy over getting smeared with bloody goat skin anyday!!!