the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus. Many years between the deaths of these martyrs and the distribution of their relics, and over time, the stories of these men (and potentially other Valentines) have merged. In 496, Pope Gelasius I made February 14 a feast day dedicated to St. Valentine.

At the church in Glasgow, the relic is decorated with flowers every year for the Feast of St. Valentine, and the friars say prayers for lovers. Though we may not know which Valentine the body belonged to, its presence has led Glasgow to label itself the “City of Love.”assembled shantytowns.  In the close quarters with poor sanitation, smallpox and typhoid outbreaks were prevalent and death was common.  In February 1864, after hundreds of contrabands and freedmen had perished, the commander of the Alexandria military district, General John P. Slough, seized a parcel of undeveloped land at the corner of South Washington and Church Streets from a pro-Confederate owner to be used as a cemetery specifically for burial of contrabands. Burials started in March that year.

The cemetery operated under General Slough's command. Its oversight was supervised by Alexandria’s Superintendent of Contrabands, the Rev. Albert Gladwin, who made arrangements for burials. Each grave was identified with a whitewashed, wooden grave marker.  In 1868, after Congress ended most functions of the Freedmen's Bureau, the cemetery was