Valentine of Rome

Valentine of Terni oversees the construction of his basilica in Terni, taken from a French manuscript of the centuryXIV

3D facial reconstruction

Saint Valentine of Rome is the name shared by three martyred saints who lived in ancient Rome. Valentine's Day was celebrated by the Catholic Church every February 14 in the traditional liturgical calendar, until in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council, the calendar of liturgical saints was reorganized and its celebration was withdrawn. Although he is not deleted from the martyrology, his local cult is allowed and his memorial continues to be commemorated on February 14.

The feast of St. Valentine was first declared around the year 498 by Pope Gelasius I. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there are actually three holy martyrs of the same name who were executed at the time of the Roman Empire, and whose festivity falls on the same date (perhaps due to an error, which is not uncommon in the calendar of saints) that we know today as Valentine's Day: the first two were martyred in the second half of the century III, during the reign of Emperor Claudius II “the Gothic”:

• a Roman doctor who became a priest and married the soldiers, even though it was forbidden by the emperor, who considered it incompatible with the arms race. Claudio II ordered him to be decapitated in 269; he was highly venerated in France, in the diocese of Jumièges;
• a bishop of the city Interamna (Today Terni, Italy), where are the remains of the body preserved in the basilica homonym, and where on 14 February is the patronal feast;
• a bishop named Valentine of Recia, who lived in the centuryV and that he was buried in Marlengo (in German) Mais), near Merano, in Tyrol, Italy; in the centuryVIII his body moved to Passau, Bavaria, in Germany; it is invoked to cure epilepsy, and from the centuryXV is represented with a child lying at his feet.

The priest and Bishop Valentine are believed to be buried on the Via Flaminia on the outskirts of Rome. In the 12th century, the city gate known in ancient times as the Porta Flaminia (now known as Porta del Popolo) was known as the Gate of Saint Valentine. A skull attributed to St. Valentine the Martyr is kept in a glass case, in full view of the faithful, in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. However, little is known about the lives of these three men.

Many of the legends that surround them today were most likely invented during the Middle Ages in France and England, when the holiday February 14 began to be associated with love, following the story of Saint Valentine, who would have been executed on February 14 for not wanting to renounce Christianity and having secretly married soldiers after the marriage of professional soldiers was prohibited by Emperor Claudius II. Another legend says that he is the patron saint of lovers because his festival coincides with the time of the year when the birds begin to mate.

The holiday was struck from the church calendar by the Catholic Church in 1969, as part of an attempt to eliminate saints of possibly legendary origin, though some local parishes continue to celebrate it. He is also venerated as a saint by the Orthodox Church and by the Anglican Church, as well as by the Lutheran Church.

In 2014, Pope Francis decided to participate in the celebration of Valentine's Day, in an attempt to give back the religious meaning to this festivity that originally arose to counteract the lupercals, considered pagan by the Catholic Church. A very popular story about this saint says that he restored the sight of a blind young woman and that, in gratitude for her, she planted a rose bush on the saint's grave that according to tradition bloomed every February 14.