A History of St. Valentine

The historical figure of St. Valentine is widely debated. At least three potential “Valentines” have been identified as candidates for the saint. Valentine, or in Latin, Valentinus, may have been a priest who assisted persecuted Christians and was subsequently jailed and beheaded on February 14^th by the Roman emperor Claudius II or he might have been a Christian martyr from the province of Africa persecuted for marrying Christian couples in secret. However, Valentine was most likely the Catholic bishop of Interamna (modern day Terni) beheaded by Claudius II in 269 AD and buried along the Via Flaminia. In fact, the Flaminian Gate, now the Porta Del Popolo, was once known as the Gate of St. Valentine. St. Valentine is credited with restoring the sight of his jailer’s daughter, and according to legend, before his death, Valentine sent her a note signed “From your Valentine”. St. Valentine is the patron saint of affianced couples, lovers, love, beekeepers, and happy marriages. Since Valentine supposedly suffered from epilepsy, he is also the patron saint of epilepsy and fainting.

In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius recognized February 14^th as a feast day in honor of the saint. This date was perhaps chosen to coincide with the pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia on February 15^th although the festival shares nothing with the current holiday. Originally a shepherd festival, Lupercalia was held in the Lupercal, the place where the mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were suckled by a she-wolf. Supposedly a very sexual animal, goats were sacrificed at altar to honor the god Lupercus, and the goatskins were then flayed and cut into thongs. The priests or Luperci would then run through the streets of Rome ceremonially whipping willing participants, especially women, with the goatskin thongs to encourage fecundity. The modern notion that Lupercalia involved a lottery where young men drew the names of the young women who would be their sexual partners for the following year is dismissed by most historians. The choice of the date, February 14^th, may also refer to the medieval belief that birds chose their mates in the middle of February as described in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules: “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day/ Whan every foul cometh to choose his mate.”

Due to the mystery surrounding St. Valentine however, since 1969, the Roman Catholic Church no longer acknowledges his feast day although some parishes still honor the martyr. The majority of his relics lie in the church of St. Praxedes in Rome, but the church of Blessed St. John Duns Scotus in Glascow, Scotland also placed relics of St. Valentine on display beginning in 1999 to garner support for the church and the city. However, Irish Catholics also claim St. Valentine’s remains lie in a casket at Whitefriar Church in Dublin. It seems even St. Valentine’s bones are up for contention.

This essay on St. Valentine was quite difficult because many of the websites I consulted contradicted each other with respect to the smaller details. Additionally, information on St. Valentine was unable from the foremost Catholic authority, the Vatican, since Valentine’s feast day in no longer celebrated on the Church calendar. Because the origins of both the saint and his celebration are contested, it is unsurprising that online articles devoted to him also contradicted their facts. Several of the Catholic websites recognized the festival of Lupercalia as the reason for Valentine’s February 14^th feast day although a description of Lupercalia on the University of Chicago’s LacusCurtius, an ancient Roman sourcebook, quickly squashed that theory.

I was disappointed to discover the superficiality of Catholic Online and American Catholic, two prominent online sites for the Roman Catholic faithful. In my own Catholic religious studies during my youth, I was required to study various saints, especially before Confirmation when each Confirmation candidate chose a special patron saint whose name the candidate would adopt. Today, that background research to choose the “right” saint is no longer conducted with books on the saints but online. How can anyone grow in their faith when online publications are so sorely lacking? The Catholic Church must embrace these new technologies.

During my online research, I avoided referencing Wikipedia when writing my essay; though afterwards, I read its article on St. Valentine, and surprisingly, I found it more expansive and thorough than any of the online Catholic sources I consulted. Wikipedia even addressed the debate over Valentine’s Day and its relation to Lupercalia. Finally, though the research was time-consuming, I had two advantages over the average student with this assignment. First, I am Roman Catholic so I have experience navigating the online Catholic world and I understand the importance of saints in the Roman Catholic faith. More importantly, I focused on the early Roman empire as an undergraduate and took four years of high school Latin; therefore, I was already very familiar with the festival of Lupercalia.