How does Pope Gelasius fit into Valentine's Day?

Answer 1

Pope Gelasius suppressed the ancient Roman festival of the lupercalia. This was an ancient Roman festival during which worshippers gathered at a grotto on the Palatine Hill in Rome called the Lupercal, where Rome's legendary founders, Romulus and Remus, had been suckled by a wolf. There is some reason to believe that the Lupercalia was a forerunner of lupercaliaValentine's Day customs. Part of the ceremony involved putting girls' names in a box and letting boys draw them out, thus pairing them off until the next Lupercalia.