Saint Valentine

Priest and Martyr

Feast Day

February 14

Life

d. 269

Saint Valentine is one of the most popularly known yet historically obscure of the early Roman martyrs. The ancient martyrologies list more than one Valentine under 14 February — a priest of Rome and a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) — both said to have been martyred in the second half of the third century and buried along the Flaminian Way north of Rome. The surviving accounts of their lives are largely legendary, and little can be established with certainty.

Because the historical record is so uncertain, the feast of Saint Valentine was removed from the General Roman Calendar in the 1969 revision; he was not, however, decanonised, and he remains a recognised saint whose memory is honoured in local calendars and at his traditional shrines.

The association of Saint Valentine with romantic love is medieval rather than ancient. It arose in the England and France of Chaucer's day from the popular belief that the birds began to choose their mates on 14 February, so that the date came to be regarded as belonging to lovers and to the exchange of tokens of affection.