The story of St. Valentine, the eponymous saint behind the holiday of February 14, is one littered with more fiction than fact. Few details are known about St. Valentine, despite centuries of research. In fact, so little is known about him that the Catholic Church removed him from the Liturgical Calendar in 1969, dedicating February 14 instead to the recognition of saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius.
And while the lore surrounding this ancient bishop paints a dramatic, romantic picture, the truth is likely a bit more ordinary. But that doesn’t mean he — alongside other ancient Christians — is not worth remembering each February. Here’s what to know.
Who Was St. Valentine?
First, there is actually more than one St. Valentine. The least well-known Valentine was born in Roman Africa, and all we really know of him was that he died on February 14 alongside 24 soldiers. He’s listed as a martyr in the Acta Santorum, a 68-volume trove that details the lives of the saints based upon centuries of research from Jesuit priests, the first edition of which was published in 1648 and is still updated to this day.
More is known about Valentine of Rome (or of Terni — the exact details of where he was from are still unclear). It’s generally agreed that this Valentine was a priest or bishop in the Roman Empire in the latter half of the third century. He was ordered to be beheaded by Emperor Claudius II in 269 (or 270) after converting and baptizing a Roman family.
Why was Valentine executed? This family that Valentine baptized wasn’t one of little consequence. It was the household of a Roman aristocrat and judge named Asterius, in whose custody Valentine had been placed due to prior run-ins with the Roman justice system, his offense likely evangelizing.
The story goes that, while under house arrest, Asterius and Valentine talked about Valentine’s faith, where Valentine told Asterius about the Christian call to lead pagans out of the darkness. Asterius then challenged him on this, wondering if Valentine’s God would be able to heal his foster daughter’s blindness. If God could heal her, Asterius told Valentine, he would convert.
Valentine placed his hands over the girl’s eyes and prayed. When he removed them, Asterius’s foster daughter could miraculously see. Asterius kept his word, and he and his entire family were baptized. This news eventually made its way to the emperor, who then called for Valentine’s execution, as Christians were fiercely persecuted during this time. The day of his execution? February 14.
Is St. Valentine the Patron Saint of Love?
In time, a number of legends fueled the lore around this man of mystery. According to some, Valentine of Rome would marry Christian couples in secret so that husbands wouldn’t be called to war, as the emperor had passed an edict around this time prohibiting Roman soldiers from marrying, believing that single men made better soldiers.
In a similarly romantic spirit, a few legends even tell of Valentine passing notes between Christian couples who had been jailed by the emperor. However, Jesuit Bollandists, who studied the history and lives of saints, discovered little historical evidence to support this.
Another less-than-true addition to Valentine’s story says that he slipped a note to Asterius’ foster daughter upon his arrest, signing it “from your Valentine.”
Medieval myth-making is largely to thank for these ahistoric additions to Valentine’s life, and it’s easy to see how these legends turned Valentine into a man who was martyred for protecting love and the sanctity of marriage instead of one that was martyred for his faith.
How is Saint Valentine tied to modern day Valentine’s Day?
St. Valentine was eventually canonized by Pope Gelasius in 496, and February 14 was designated the feast of St. Valentine. But even the date chosen for Valentine’s Day comes with legends of its own.
In the 18th century, antiquity historians believed that February 14 was chosen as Valentine’s Day in order to replace a pagan fertility festival — Lupercalia — that happened around the same time. However, scholarship from the 20th century has shown this to be untrue. The date of Valentine’s Day is likely due to the date of Valentine’s death, rather than any coverup of a pagan holiday.
So, if Valentine wasn’t a love-laden priest, where did his feast day get its romantic connotations from? The answer may lie with the medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer’s late 14th-century poem “Parlement of Foules” holds one of the first cultural references to Valentine’s Day being a day for choosing a partner, as February was mating season for many birds in Chaucer’s native England:
For this was on Saint Valentine’s day,
When every fowl comes there his mate to take.
The feast day’s romantic implications grew, and soon references of lovers being called ‘valentines’ popped up in letters, books, and plays — Ophelia even refers to herself as Hamlet’s valentine in Shakespeare’s 1603 tragedy.
And what happened with this once rather-ordinary feast day over centuries is seen again and again throughout many of our modern-day holidays — as the 19th century came to a close, industrialization ramped up and retailers and manufacturers latched on to an occasion growing in popularity, creating a wide variety of products (in this case, cards and chocolate) made just for that special day.
While it may be easy to bemoan that commercialization has stripped certain holidays of their true religious significance, this isn’t really the case with Valentine’s Day. It seems Valentine’s Day was never a day to celebrate a priest defending the purity and sanctity of love.
Instead, it was most likely originally a day to remember a man of faith dying for the sharing the gospel he held dear, like so many other early Christians did in those first centuries of the church. So, whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day in joy or mostly let it pass you by, remember the ordinary men and women whose martyrdom paved the way for our faith centuries ago.
For even if a martyr’s sacrifice isn’t one adorned in legend and lore, their perseverance to the gospel surely helped bring the church and its truth to the world today.
