Love for sale: Buying into Valentine’s Day

Little is known is about St. Valentinus (aka Valentine), beyond his name and where he was buried.

The legend claims Valentine performed secret marriages for persecuted Christians around 270, until Roman Emperor Claudius II caught on and arrested him. While in custody, he fell in love with Claudius’s daughter. Before his execution, the saint wrote her a farewell letter signed “Your Valentine.”

Standing against adversity in the name of love is all well and good, but real romance doesn’t ‘make bank’.