Saint Valentine
"San Valentino" redirects here. For other uses, see San Valentino (disambiguation).
For the holiday, see Valentine's Day.
Saint Valentine
Saint Valentine receives a rosary from the Virgin, by
David Teniers III
Bishop and Martyr
traditionally ca. 269[1] but see text
Died
Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Honored
Anglican Communion
in
Lutheranism, and individual Baptist
churches
February 14 (Anglican Church &
Lutheran Church)
Feast
July 30 (Eastern Orthodox Church)
birds; roses; bishop with a crippled or a
child with epilepsy at his feet; bishop
with a rooster nearby; bishop refusing to
Attributes
adore an idol; bishop being beheaded;
priest bearing a sword; priest holding a
sun; priest giving sight to a blind girl[1]
affianced couples, against fainting, bee
Patronage keepers, happy marriages, love, plague,
epilepsy[1]
Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is a widely recognized third century Roman saint
commemorated on February 14 and associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of
courtly love. Nothing is reliably known of St. Valentine except his name and the fact that he died
on February 14 on Via Flaminia in the north of Rome. It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to
be identified as one saint or two saints of the same name. Several differing martyrologies have
been added to later hagiographies that are unreliable. For these reasons this liturgical
commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration
as revised in 1969.[2] But the "Martyr Valentinus who died on the 14th of February on the Via
Flaminia close to the Milvian bridge in Rome" still remains in the list of officially recognized
saints for local veneration.[3] Saint Valentine's Church in Rome, built in 1960 for the needs of the
Olympic Village, continues as a modern, well-visited parish church.[4]
Today, Saint Valentine's Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an official feast day
in the Anglican Communion,[5] as well as in the Lutheran Church.[6] In the Eastern Orthodox
Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6 [7] and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine
(Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30.[8] Notwithstanding, because of the
relative obscurity of this western saint in the East, members of the Greek Orthodox Church
named Valentinos (male) or Valentina (female) may celebrate their name day on the Western
ecclesiastical calendar date of February 14.[9]
Identification
In the Roman Catholic Church the name Valentinus does not yet occur in the earliest list of
Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354.[10] But it already can be found in the
Martyrologium Hieronymianum,[11] which was compiled, from earlier local sources, between
460 and 544. The feast of St. Valentine of February 14 was first established in 496 by Pope
Gelasius I, who included Valentine among all those "... whose names are justly reverenced
among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implies, nothing was yet
known to him about his life.
The Catholic Encyclopedia[12] and other hagiographical sources [13] speak of three Saint
Valentines that appear in connection with February 14. One was a Roman priest, another the
bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) both buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at
different distances from the city. The third they say was a saint who suffered on the same day
with a number of companions in the Roman province of Africa, for whom nothing else is known.
Though the extant accounts of the martyrdoms of the first two listed saints are of a late date and
contain legendary elements, a common nucleus of fact may underlie the two accounts and they
may refer to one single person.[14] According to the official biography of the Diocese of Terni,
Bishop Valentine was born and lived in Interamna and was imprisoned and tortured in Rome on
February 14, 273, while on a temporary stay there. His body was buried in a hurry at a nearby
cemetery and a few nights later his disciples came and carried him home.[15]
Τhe Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, for February 14
gives only one Saint Valentine; a martyr who died on the Via Flaminia.[16]
Other Saint Valentines
The name "Valentine", derived from valens (worthy, strong, powerful), was popular in Late
Antiquity. About eleven other saints having the name Valentine are commemorated in the
Roman Catholic Church.[17] Some Eastern Churches of the Western rite may provide still other
different lists of Saint Valentines.[18] The Roman martyrology lists only seven who died on days
other than February 14: a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in
about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in
about 715 (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and
Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18). It also lists a virgin, Saint
Valentina, who was martyred in 308 (July 25) in Caesarea, Palestine. All eight were outstanding
lovers of God and people, able to hear and to support anyone who is in love.[19]
Hagiography and testimony
Saint Valentine of Terni oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni, from a 14th century
French manuscript (BN, Mss fr. 185)
The inconsistency in the identification of the saint is replicated in the various vita that are
ascribed to him. A commonly ascribed hagiographical identity appears in the Nuremberg
Chronicle (1493). Alongside a woodcut portrait of Valentine, the text states that he was a Roman
priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested
and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians
who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was
considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner – until Valentinus tried to convert the
Emperor – whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stones;
when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are
given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.[20]
Another popular hagiography describes Saint Valentine as the former Bishop of Terni, a city in
southern Umbria, in what is now central Italy. While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and
discussing his faith with him, Valentinus (the Roman pronunciation of his name) was discussing
the validity of Jesus. The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge's adopted
blind daughter. If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl's sight, Asterius would do anything
he asked. Valentinus laid his hands on her eyes and the child's vision was restored. Immediately
humbled, the judge asked Valentinus what he should do. Valentinus replied that all of the idols
around the judge's house should be broken, the judge should fast for three days, and then
undergo baptism. The judge obeyed and as a result, freed all the Christian inmates under his
authority. The judge, his family and forty others were baptized.[21] Valentinus was later arrested
again for continuing to serve Jesus and was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius
himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to lead Claudius to Jesus,
whereupon Claudius refused and condemned Valentinus to death, commanding that Valentinus
either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs, and beheaded. Valentinus refused and
Claudius' command was executed outside the Flaminian Gate February 14, 269.[22]
Churches named Valentine
Saint Valentine baptizing Saint Lucilla by Jacopo Bassano
Saint Valentine was not exceptionally more venerated than other saints and it seems that in
England no church was ever dedicated to him.[23] There are many churches containing the name
of Valentine in other countries.[citation needed]
A 5th or 6th century work called Passio Marii et Marthae made up a legend about Saint
Valentine's Basilica (it:Basilica di San Valentino
) being dedicated to Saint Valentine in Rome. A later Passio repeated the legend and added the
adornment that Pope Julius I (357-352) had built the ancient basilica S. Valentini extra Portam
on top of his sepulchre, in the Via Flaminia.[24] This church was really named after a 4th century
tribune called Valentino, who donated the land it's built in.[24] It hosted the martyr's relics until
the thirteenth century, when they were transferred to Santa Prassede, and the ancient basilica
decayed.[25]
In the Golden Legend
The Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read
books of the High Middle Ages, gives sufficient details of the saints for each day of the liturgical
year to inspire a homily on each occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine has him refusing to
deny Christ before the "Emperor Claudius"[26] in the year 280. Before his head was cut off, this
Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. Jacobus makes a play with the
etymology of "Valentine", "as containing valour".
St. Valentine's Day
English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of
Saint Valentine's identity, suggested that Saint Valentine's Day was created as an attempt to
supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia (mid-February in Rome). This idea has lately been
contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas
. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth
century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February
14 first became associated with romantic love.[27]
Historian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with "Valentine's Day",
documented in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old
tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer.[28] He argues that the speculative explanation of
sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries,
notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by
respectable modern scholars. In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from a Vies des
Saints (illustration above), Saint Valentine, bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his
basilica at Terni; there is no suggestion here that the bishop was a patron of lovers.[29]
Relics and liturgical celebration
Shrine of St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland
The flower-crowned skull of St. Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in
Cosmedin, Rome.
In 1836, some relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via
Tiburtina, then near (rather than inside) Rome, were identified with St Valentine; placed in a
casket, and transported to the procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young
people and all those in love.
Also in 1836, Fr. John Spratt, an Irish priest and famous preacher, was given many tokens of
esteem following a sermon in Rome. One gift from Pope Gregory XVI were the remains of St.
Valentine and "a small vessel tinged with his blood." The Reliquary was placed in Whitefriar
Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, and has remained there until this day. This was accompanied by
a letter claiming the relics were those of St. Valentine.[30]
Another relic was found in 2003 in Prague in Church of St Peter and Paul at Vyšehrad.[31]
Alleged relics of St. Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France, in the
Stephansdom in Vienna, in Balzan in Malta and also in Blessed John Duns Scotus' church in the
Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland. There is also a gold reliquary bearing the words 'Corpus St.
Valentin, M' (Body of St. Valentine, Martyr) at The Birmingham Oratory, UK, in one of the side
altars in the main church.
Saint Valentine remains in the Catholic Church's official list of saints (the Roman Martyrology),
but, in view of the scarcity of information about him, his commemoration was removed from the
General Calendar for universal liturgical veneration, when this was revised in 1969. It is included
in local calendars of places such as Balzan in Malta. Some[who?] still observe the calendars of the
Roman Rite from the Tridentine Calendar until 1969, in which Saint Valentine was at first
celebrated as a simple feast, until 1955, when Pope Pius XII reduced the mention of Saint
Valentine to a commemoration in the Mass of the day. It is kept as a commemoration by
Traditionalist Roman Catholics who — in accordance with the authorization given by Pope
Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007 — use the General Roman
Calendar of 1962 and the liturgy of Pope John XXIII's 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, and, as
a Simple Feast, by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who use the General Roman Calendar as in
1954.
February 14 is also celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in other Christian denominations; it has, for
example, the rank of 'commemoration' in the calendar of the Church of England and other parts
of the Anglican Communion.[32]