It’s not all a bed of roses …

PICKENS COUNTY — For people today, Valentine’s Day is a day of chocolate, roses and those little candy hearts. Kids in school swap little cardboard confessions of affection and happy couples around the world take a night to rekindle the flames of love.

But for a day that’s centered around love and affection, Valentine’s Day has some pretty dark roots. Ask yourself: How much do you really know about the man behind the day? Because the story of the real Saint Valentine is not a pleasant one …

But first, some back story.

Discovering the origins of Valentine’s Day is surprisingly difficult. For one, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine (or Valentinus) — all of whom were martyred.

The most commonly accepted story goes that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome.

According to lore, Emperor Claudius II decided single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families. In accordance, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, disagreeing with the decree, continued to perform marriages in secret. When he was discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine’s Day — albeit on July 6 and July 30 — the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna.

Other stories suggest Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl — possibly his jailer’s daughter — who visited him during his confinement.

Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” — an expression that is still in use today.

But there are other origins to the story besides Christian ones.

An ancient pagan fertility festival known as “Lupercalia” was observed on Feb. 15 and involved cleansing rituals to purify the city of Rome and to promote health and fertility.

Each Lupercalia began with the sacrifice by the Luperci (priests) of goats and a dog, after which two of the Luperci were led to the altar, their foreheads touched with a bloody knife and the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk.

If that wasn’t weird enough, the ritual required that the two young men … laugh.

Anyway, the sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci “cut thongs from the skins of the sacrificial animals and ran in two bands around the Palatine hill, striking with the thongs at any woman who came near them.”

A blow from the thong was supposed to render a woman fertile.

How romantic.

It has been theorized by some scholars the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia.

So, which story is true? Well, all of them. Or, none of them. The bottom line is the accounts — while varied — have lost much to history. Although most historians do at least agree St. Valentine was a real person who was put to death (by beheading, not arrows).

But, no matter which St. Valentine you subscribe to, all the stories agree he was portrayed as a sympathetic, heroic and — most importantly — romantic figure.

Happy Valentine’s Day.