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Saint Valentine
Image: Matija Bradaška · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Saint Valentine

A Roman priest martyred on the Via Flaminia, linked to 14 February

Rank
Saint
Kind
Martyr, Priest
Life
d. ~269
Era
3rd century
Feast
14 February
Countries
Italy
Italy

Life story

Early sources speak of a Valentine, a priest in Rome, who was executed under the emperor Claudius II Gothicus, around the year 269 by the usual reckoning, and buried beside the Via Flaminia north of the city. Beyond this, the detailed narratives about him appear rather late and contain many legendary features, so historians treat them with caution.

Tradition also mentions another Valentine, bishop of Terni in Umbria, who was also martyred and also remembered on 14 February. Some scholars think this is one person told in two ways, while others take them to be two men. Sources do not agree on the year of death either, giving 269, 270 and other dates.

A small church was built over the tomb on the Via Flaminia, and Pope Julius I is later said to have built a larger basilica. The date of 14 February came to be kept as his day of remembrance, though the old claim that Pope Gelasius I fixed it in 496 rests on a misreading of an early document. Parts of his relics were afterwards moved to several places in Rome.

His link with lovers does not appear in the earliest documents. It emerges in European literature of the late fourteenth century, when Chaucer and his contemporaries tied the day to the season when birds choose their mates. Since 1969 he has no longer been in the General Roman Calendar, but he still appears in the Roman Martyrology on 14 February.

Works and witness

  • Roman priest executed around 269 under Claudius II
  • Buried on the Via Flaminia, where a church later bore his name
  • Honoured on 14 February; early records of him are slight
  • Possibly confused with Valentine of Terni, who shares his feast
  • Tied to romantic love only from late fourteenth-century literature

Saints from the same country

Saint Agnes, Saint Lawrence, Saint Cecilia, Saint Sebastian

References

  • Martyrologium Romanum
  • Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
  • Bibliotheca Sanctorum

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.