Valentine's Day started when the Emperor Claudius II ruled Rome. Claudius pushed Rome into so many wars that he had a hard time finding soldiers for his army. He thought the reason was that Roman men did not want to leave their families and lovers. To solve that problem, he cancelled marriages and engagements. But a Christian priest named Valentine continued to marry couples in secret. When the emperor learned about these marriages, he sent Valentine to prison. The priest died in prison on February 14, in the year 270. Not until a few hundred years later did Saint Valentine's Day take its present form. Today we still honor Saint Valentine. The old ideas of love, marriage and fertility have lasted and taken on modern meanings.