Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day, or lesser known as Saint Valentine’s Day, or Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on 14^th of February each year by various Christian denominations, including Anglican Cummunian, the Lutheran Church, and the Roman Catholic Church.  However, in the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the Feast of Saint Valentine was removed from the General Roman Calendar.

The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates St. Valentine’s Day on 6^th July, to honour a Roman presbyter, Saint Valentine.  In addition of that, the Eastern Orthodox Church observes the Feast of Hieromartyr Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, on 30^th July.

Saint Valentines

The name Valentine derived from ‘valens’ ( means worthy, strong, powerful ) was popular in Late Antiquity ( c 2nd - 8^th century ).

There are numerous early Christian martyrs whom were named Valentine.  Yet, the Valentines honoured on February 14 are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni.

Valentine of Terni became Bishop of Interamna in AD 197.  he was martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian, and was also buried on the Via Flaminia.  His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni.

Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269.  He was buried on the Via Flaminia, an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum.  His relics are at the Brasilica of Santa Prassede in Rome, and Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Ireland.  A flower-crowned skull of Valentine of Rome is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.

Valentine of Rome was a priest during which Christian were persecuted.  St. Valentine secretly perform Christian wedding for soldiers whom were forbidden to marry.  He also cut heart from parchment and gave them to the persecuted Christians to remind them of God’s love and to encourage them to remain faithful Christians. 

St. Valentine was executed by Emperor Claudius II.  Before his execution, he performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. 

Yet in Chronographer of 354 ( a manuscript from AD 354 ), the name Valentine cannot be found in the earliest list of martyrs.

But it already can be found in the Maryrologium Hieronymianum ( a compilation of Christian martyrs from 460-544 AD ).

Roman Martyrology ( the official martyrology of the Roman Catholic Church, published in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII ) recognized only one Valentine, presumably Valentine of Rome. 

The Catholic Encyclopedia ( published by Robert Appleton Company, NY, USA, in 1905 ) also speaks of a saint named Valentine who was martyred on February 14.  He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions.  His skull was preserved in the abbey of New Minster, Winchester.

Valentine’s Day

There is no hard evidence of the origin of Valentine Day, nor any link with an ancient Roman festival Lupercalia.

For centuries, the Romans celebrated Lupercalia on February 15, an archaic rite linked to mythical god Lupercus.  On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year. 

The then Pope Gelasius I changed the lottery to have both young man and woman draw the names of saints whom they would emulate for the year.  The patron of the feast was replaced with Valentine.  Some claim that Gelasius replaced Lupercalia with the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Yet the Roman Catholic in 1969 dropped Feast of Saint Valentine from its calendar.  Nevertheless, it’s observed by various other Christian denominations, and the rest of the world.