Who is this St. Valentine anyway?
Trying to identify the first St. Valentine is as challenging as understanding the mystery of love itself.The inspiration for the valentines that bring bright red cheer in the midst of February's bleakness could be one or more of the following:
- Bishop Valentine of Terni (60 miles from Rome), beheaded around the years 269-270 on Feb. 14.
- A priest and physician in Rome, also named Valentine and also beheaded in 269-270. They may be the same person.
- A man named Valentine who built a church on Rome's Via Flaminia and was buried there. The church became St. Valentine's Church (though other sources say it memorialized Valentine the priest or bishop).
- A wealthy young gentleman who, while waiting to wed his love, was imprisoned and martyred Feb. 14, again around 270.
The Roman Catholic Church's official encyclopedia of saints lists 17 Valentines, including ones from Italy, France, Spain and Germany. The church takes a neutral stance, designating no patron saint of lovers.
Bishop Valentine supposedly had a garden where he let children play and lovers meet. While imprisoned, Valentine tied the keys of the garden to two pigeons with a message inviting the children to return to the garden.
Another version has Bishop Valentine giving lovers flowers from the garden. One couple who encountered the bishop enjoyed such a happy marriage that every couple wanted his blessing.
Franco Gualdrini, a modern-day bishop of Terni, refused to claim his town's patron saint as the definitive champion of love.
"It is a popular tradition," Bishop Gualdrini said. "Some things are proclaimed from above; some are proclaimed from below."
Avanel's Dictionary of the Saints says: "There is nothing in either Valentine legend to account for the custom of choosing a partner of the opposite sex and sending `valentines' on 14 February; it apparently arose from an old idea that birds begin to pair on that date, but it may have a more pagan reference."
The pagan reference deals with the Lupercalia, a Roman fertility festival in which, on Feb. 14, boys drew names of girls in honor of their goddess, Februaro Juno. To abolish this practice, names of saints were substituted on brief letters or notes sent on the feast day of Valentine, who became the protector of lovers.
A different story of Valentine is that he was a wealthy young man, engaged to be wed, who was imprisoned because of his refusal to say "Caesar is Lord!" He maintained instead, "Jesus is Lord!" While awaiting execution, Valentine wrote beautiful, passionate love letters to his girlfriend. Some say this Valentine was martyred on Feb. 14, 269. Since then, said researcher Stephen Crotts, "Christians have celebrated his fidelity to Christ and romantic love on the 14th of February by sending . . . love letters to special people."
The Book of Saints lists Feb. 14 as the feast day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, brothers in ninth century Greece whose missionary work profoundly influenced the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe. "They take precedence over St. Valentine," said Brother Augustus Condon, manager of a religious bookstore in New York.
Brother Gus, who terms St. Valentine the "patron of greetings," relates a form of the legend that appears on a religious card:
Valentine was a young priest in Rome, imprisoned for his faith. "He wanted to reassure his loved ones of his well-being and affection for them. Within his reach outside his cell window grew a cluster of violets." He picked some of the violets' heart-shaped leaves and sent them off by a friendly dove.
"Thus did the valentine have its beginning, and so it has been through the ages - those who love do remember, and send valentines to express their love."