The problem with the feast of St. Valentine, celebrated 14 February, is we don’t know which ancient Christian martyr named Valentinus the day is supposed to honor; and all the stories we have about these multiple Valentinuses (or, if we wanna go with a Latin plural, Valentini) are probably myths.
Here’s what little we know about the three Valentinuses we can name:
St. Valentine’s skull in the Basilica of Santa Maria, Cosmedin, Rome. Eww. The Catholic Telegraph
- VALENTINUS OF ROME. A priest who died in the last half of the 200s, and is buried on the Flaminian Way. Well, mostly; the Basilica of Santa Maria has his skull, and a number of other churches claim to have other bones.
- VALENTINUS OF INTERAMNA. A bishop who died around the year 270, who is likewise buried on the Flaminian Way. St. Julius (whom Catholics call Pope Julius 1; he died in 332) had a basilica built in Terni in his honor.
- VALENTINUS OF… SOMEWHERE. A Christian who suffered in Africa along with a number of companions.
Yes, that’s everything. You thought there was more? That’s because in the absence of actual history, people made up stories about Valentinus. Some of these things might’ve been done by other Christian martyrs, but now St. Valentine’s name is tacked on to them. Some of them might be total fiction. There’s no way of knowing; that’s always the problem with Christian mythology.
Because we really do know nothing about him but myths, the Roman Catholics decided to delete his feast day from their general calendar in 1969. Orthodox Christians have feast days for the first two Valentines on 6 July and 30 July, respectively. As for the Catholics, the calendar marks today as officially Sts. Cyril and Methodus Day. So… happy St. Cyril’s Day! Or St. Methodus’s Day! Or both! Have fun really confusing your date tonight by giving them a St. Methodus’s Day card.
As you likely know already, merchants and restauranteurs have adopted this day as a celebration of romance, and hope you now feel heavily obligated to give something thoughtful to your significant other. Preferably something they sell. That’s pretty much all people know Valentine’s Day as. Which is fine; there’s nothing wrong with appropriately appreciating someone you love. Have fun with that.
It’s gotta be super awkward for the Sts. Valentines though. Especially if they were celibate.
Popular myths about Valentine.
Again, we’re not sure which of the Valentines we’re talking about in these myths, but here ya go.
One popular myth is Valentinus was a priest who performed forbidden marriages. Apparently married men couldn’t get drafted into the military, so young Romans were temporarily forbidden from doing so, but Valentinus performed a few marriages anyway, then got arrested and persecuted. I remind you at this point in history, Christianity wasn’t seen as a legitimate religion by the Roman Empire, so they wouldn’t have seen Valentinus’s marriages as valid anyway. But they would have seen him as a nuisance, and did away with him for it.
Another is he met a Roman judge, who wanted proof Jesus is real and dared Valentinus to cure his blind daughter. Once Valentinus did exactly that (either through the Holy Spirit, or because he was a physician, as medieval
Supposedly before he died, Valentinus wrote a letter to the judge’s daughter signed “from your Valentinus,” which English-speakers would’ve translated “from your Valentine,” and might’ve got the idea to name their messages of love “Valentines.” Meh, maybe.
Another popular myth is Valentinus, while in prison, was the only literate guy there, so he alone could write messages to the loved ones of other prisoners. This is also held up as the origin of Valentine cards… which didn’t become popular for centuries after any of the Valentinuses died, so I’m gonna call rubbish on this one too. People seem to really wanna create some historical precedent for Valentine cards.
A variant of this myth is Valentinus ran afoul of Claudius Gothicus for converting lots of people to Christianity. The emperor ordered him to denounce Christ Jesus, and of course Valentinus wouldn’t. While he was in prison awaiting execution, Valentinus cured his jailer’s daughter from blindness and deafness. He also got ahold of some parchment and cut it into heart shapes, and used it to encourage his fellow persecuted Christians.
How’d Valentine get associated with romantic love? Dunno. There’s a myth that ancient Christians decided to turn St. Valentine’s Day into a celebration of love in order to discourage the pagan festival of Lupercalia, held 15 February. But since Christians didn’t start doing Valentine’s Day stuff till the late middle ages, long after Lupercalia celebrations ended, it’s extremely unlikely. Won’t stop current pagan religions from claiming it anyway, but none of those religions are all that strong in historical accuracy.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem Parliament of Fowls, written around 1382, tells of a belief that birds choose their mates on Valentine’s Day, or otherwise start mating in mid-February. This is the first historical reference we know of which connects Valentine’s Day and romance. Maybe the custom started around then; maybe it had been around a while; maybe people read Chaucer and decided to start something. We’ve no idea.
How do Christians observe the day? The same way everyone else does. There are no special Christian ceremonies or customs involving any of the St. Valentines. We simply observe the day and do something for our significant other… or we disappoint ’em and don’t. And that’s that.
