Saint Valentine (Latin: Valentinius), officially Saint Valentine of Rome, 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.
All that is reliably known of the saint is his name and that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia close to the Milvian bridge to the north of Rome on that day. It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to be identified as one saint or the conflation of two saints of the same name.
Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Lutheran Church. St. Valentine’s Day was originally established as the commemoration of a martyr of the Church on the annual memorial of his death. The day was apparently established by Pope St. Gelasius I (Pope from 492-496). St. Valentine’s death was recorded as February 14. But there were possibly three different men named Valentine who died on this date in different years. Though Valentine may seem an unusual name to modern English speaking cultures, the name was fairly common in Rome and the early Latin Church. Today there are more than thirty Saint’s commemorated with the name Valentine at different times of the year. Two in particular are listed in the current list of Martyrs for February 14: St. Valentine of Terni who was martyred in 273, and St. Valentine of Rome who was martyred in 269. So much imaginative legend has grown up around St. Valentine that today it may be hard to separate fiction from truth. This leaves us to consider why it is that we have Saint’s days in our liturgical calendar. The purpose is that we may use their example of clinging to Christ against all the storms this world can throw at them, their examples of holding fast to the doctrine of Christ for the salvation of their souls, their examples of love for God and love for neighbor in spite of their own sinfulness in this sin stained world.
Christ said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Christ lived and died this example. He rose again to show He conquered Satan, sin, and death.
It wasn’t until the 1750s A.D. that men began to create the notion that the choice of St. Valentine’s day had other motivations than just the fact that February 14th was the day he was believed to have died.
This article is an effort to remove the chaff from the kernel that we may “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” without giving “heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.”
All that is reliably known of the saint is his name and that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia close to the Milvian bridge to the north of Rome on that day. It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to be identified as one saint or the conflation of two saints of the same name.
Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Lutheran Church. St. Valentine’s Day was originally established as the commemoration of a martyr of the Church on the annual memorial of his death. The day was apparently established by Pope St. Gelasius I (Pope from 492-496). St. Valentine’s death was recorded as February 14. But there were possibly three different men named Valentine who died on this date in different years. Though Valentine may seem an unusual name to modern English speaking cultures, the name was fairly common in Rome and the early Latin Church. Today there are more than thirty Saint’s commemorated with the name Valentine at different times of the year. Two in particular are listed in the current list of Martyrs for February 14: St. Valentine of Terni who was martyred in 273, and St. Valentine of Rome who was martyred in 269. So much imaginative legend has grown up around St. Valentine that today it may be hard to separate fiction from truth. This leaves us to consider why it is that we have Saint’s days in our liturgical calendar. The purpose is that we may use their example of clinging to Christ against all the storms this world can throw at them, their examples of holding fast to the doctrine of Christ for the salvation of their souls, their examples of love for God and love for neighbor in spite of their own sinfulness in this sin stained world.
Christ said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Christ lived and died this example. He rose again to show He conquered Satan, sin, and death.
It wasn’t until the 1750s A.D. that men began to create the notion that the choice of St. Valentine’s day had other motivations than just the fact that February 14th was the day he was believed to have died.
This article is an effort to remove the chaff from the kernel that we may “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” without giving “heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.”