Today is Valentine’s Day, but who was St Valentine and how did he come to be associated with romance and slightly tacky merchandising?

Well actually, there seem to have been three different St Valentines associated with February 14 from around the third Century, but details and dates are very hazy.

The most likely “real” Valentine was a Bishop from Terni in Umbria who was imprisoned and martyred in Rome for not renouncing his Christian faith. But in addition there was a Roman priest and a third Valentine who was martyred in Africa, also on February 14.

Interestingly, as well as being patron saint of love, young people and happy marriages, Valentine is also patron saint of epileptics, fainting, plague, travellers, greetings and beekepers.

It is thought that his association with Valentine’s greeting cards originated in a legend that, while imprisoned, he restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter; then on the day of his execution, he left the girl a note signed, "Your Valentine."

His association with love and betrothed couples appears to date from the Middle Ages, when it was believed that birds paired up in mid-February. Another theory is that Valentine's Day as we know it was created to overpower the pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia in mid-February.

In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed St Valentine from the General Roman Calendar, because so little is known about him. However, the church still recognises him as a saint.

I find it encouraging that there is a saint looking after love and happy marriages, as these are still essential foundations of a stable society.

The late Pope Francis said that that the family is "the first place where the values of love and fraternity... are lived out and handed on," making it vital for social stability.

However, love, in the fullest sense of the word, is not just restricted to St Valentine and cards featuring romantic pink hearts; it is at the very heart (I love puns) of Christian teaching. In St John’s first letter, chapter 4, verse 16, he gives us the ultimate love greeting: “God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them.”