SOUL FOOD:Various versions of the origin of St. Valentine’s Day

Before Lamaze childbirth, fertility doctors and in vitro fertilization, there was the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, said by some to have been supplanted by the Christian feast of St. Valentine.

Others say Lupercalia was replaced by the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the movable feast of Shrove Tuesday, also now known as Mardi Gras.

Lupercalia may have pre-dated Rome itself, though the earliest record of the celebration is that of 44 B.C. — later immortalized by Shakespeare in his play “Julius Caesar.”

The festival of purification meant to promote fertility and prosperity in the new year was orchestrated by a solidarity of elite Roman men known as Luperci — brothers of the wolf, or, in Latin, lupus, from which Lupercalia derived its name. The celebration kicked off with sacrifices that some historians speculate were, in the beginning, human.

There’s no existing written account of such sacrifices, however. Recorded history shows the festival commencing with the sacrifice of two male goats and a dog.

Two young Luperci were then led to the altar and anointed with the sacrificial blood, an act thought to evoke earlier human sacrifices. The animals were then consumed as part of the sacrificial feast.

After the feast, the Luperci cut the animals’ hides into thongs called Februa, taken from the Latin Februare, meaning to purify. Dressed in girdles of goatskin, the Luperci would dip the goat-hide Februa into the sacrificed animals’ blood and take to the streets.

With blood-soaked hides in both hands, they would trace the walls of the city. Along the way, they would gently strike with their ritual thongs those who gathered around.

Young women would line the route seeking the lashes of the Luperci. They believed doing so would guarantee their fertility and ease their pains in childbirth.

Lupercalia was consequently also called Februatio, and the month in which it was held became known as February. Whether the Roman festival met its demise in the feast of St. Valentine is still — and may always be — a matter of debate.

It may have simply petered out amid cultural shifts, much the way the once strictly religious feast of St. Valentine has with time been obscured by the more secular Valentine’s Day.

We do know this: The first feast of St. Valentine was not observed until Feb. 14, 496. Set forth by decree by Pope Gelasius I, it might have been intended to squelch what was considered to be a pagan and, if not licentious, at least superstitious fête.

Certainly, Februatio and its rituals could not have pleased Pope Gelasius. A letter from the pope to a senator called Andromachus leaves no doubt that the pontiff was relieved to see the ancient festival cease.

Which saint Gelasius intended to honor 1511 years ago when he set a feast day on Feb. 14 is less clear. By Roman Catholic accounts, there are at least three saints named Valentine — or Valentinus — all of them martyrs.

Two of them were martyred in the second half of the third century. But written accounts of the two men — one a priest at Rome and the other a bishop of what is presently Terni — are of such a late date, which is why they’re considered historically useless.

The third Valentine was martyred in Africa with a number of other Christians. Nothing more about him is known.

Lore seems to favor the priest Valentine as the martyr Gelasius had in mind. As the legend goes, the priest defied Claudius II when the Roman emperor decided to outlaw marriage for young men.

Claudius, like many military leaders since, thought young single men made for better soldiers than men with wives or families. Valentine, it’s said, considered Claudius’ decree against marriage unjust.

So he continued to officiate weddings for young lovers clandestinely. When he was found out, Claudius had him put to death.

Another version of Valentine’s life and martyrdom tells a different story. According to it, the emperor executed the priest for having helped Christians escape Roman prisons where they were being tortured and killed.

Either way, he was imprisoned. There, a secondary story adds to the romance of the tale: While in jail, his jailer’s daughter visited him and Valentine himself fell in love.

As the folklore would have it, he wrote to his beloved before he died (some say of illness in prison, some say by beheading). He signed his letter “From your Valentine.”

A priest romantically entangled with a young woman scarcely seems like fitting fiber from which to spin the saga of a saint. But it suits the secular and rather sentimental nature of our contemporary Valentine’s Day, which has discarded the word “Saint” altogether.

Not that the romantic twist on the day is wholly ours. Some see the thread flowing all the way back to the fertility festival of Lupercalia. Others follow it to 15th century France and England.

As The Catholic Encyclopedia sees it, “The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine’s Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages.”

That belief, the encyclopedia relates, was “that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair.” Hence men and women did likewise.

So we find in Chaucer’s “Parliament of Foules” this early reference to St. Valentine’s Day as a day meant for lovers: “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day/Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”

The association seems to have stuck. Enter Cupid, the son of Venus, the Roman goddess of love.

We may never know if St. Valentine’s Day is what truly undercut Lupercalia. We may never know which Valentine Pope Gelasius I meant for us to remember.

But for all its transformation, the holiday has had a long run. I expect it will continue to.

For all its secularization, no pope has hinted at wanting to take the saint’s day off the church calendar. With “Saint” plucked from its name, Valentine’s Day doesn’t seem religious enough to give the ACLU heartburn.

Besides, should anyone want to abolish the holiday, I’m betting they’ll have to contend with the greeting card industry (not to mention the purveyors of flowers and jewelry and confections) first.

According to the greeting card association, as many as one billion Valentine’s Day cards are purchased each year, making it the second-largest (after Christmas) card-sending holiday of the year.

Isn’t that a match made in heaven?