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Saint Valentine or Saint Valentinus refers to one of at least three martyred saints of ancient Rome. The feast of Saint Valentine was formerly celebrated on February 14 by the Roman Catholic Church until the revised calendar 1969.

The feast of St. Valentine was first decreed in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine— and Saint George— among those "...whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." The creation of the feast for such dimly conceived figures may have been an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia that was still being celebrated in 5th century Rome, on February 15.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the saint whose feast was celebrated on the day now known as Valentine's Day was possibly one of the three martyred men who lived in the late 3rd century during the reign of Emperor Claudius II (died 270):

• a priest in Rome
• a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni)
• a martyr in the Roman province of Africa.

It is believed that the priest and the bishop Valentinus are each buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different lengths from the city. In the 12th century, the Roman city gate known in ancient times as the Porta Flaminia (now known as the Porta del Popolo) was known as the Gate of St. Valentine.

As Gelasius implied, nothing is known about the lives of any of these martyrs, however. Many of the current legends surrounding them were invented in the late Middle Ages in France and England, when the feast day of February 14 became associated with romantic love. No such sentiment appears in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read books of the High Middle Ages. The Legenda Aurea gives sufficient details of the saints and for each day of the liturgical year to inspire a homily on the occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine, has him refusing to deny Christ before the "Emperor Claudius" in the year 280. Before his head was struck 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", but there is nothing of hearts and last notes signed "from your Valentine," as is sometimes suggested in modern works of sentimental piety .

The historical 2nd-century bishop Valentinus (died ca 153) is not venerated on any day of the Roman Catholic calendar, for his teachings were declared heretical and his works suppressed. Valentinus or Valentinius was the best known and for a time the most successful Christian Gnostic theologian, and a charismatic though divisive figure. Bands of his followers could still be found in the 5th century, when a more acceptable Valentinus was recollected and canonized.

In 1836, relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina near Rome, were identified with St Valentine, placed in a golden casket and transported to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, to which they were donated by Pope Gregory XVI. Many tourists visit the saintly remains on St. Valentine's Day, when the casket is carried in solemn procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young people and all those in love. Alleged bodily relics of St Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France and in the Stephansdom in Vienna..

The saint's feast day was removed from the Church calendar in 1969 as part of a broader effort to remove saints of purely legendary origin. The feast day is still celebrated locally in some parishes.

See also: Valentine's Day, La Fete du Baiser

References

• Golden Legend: St Valentine
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Saint Valentine

• Ancient Roman Christianity
• Christian martyrs
• Decanonized Saints