Saint Valentine (History)
BE IN THE KNOW | Sant Valentine, martyr
Mga Brother and Sister, Happy Valentine's Day! As we celebrate the day of love and hearts today, February 14, let us know more about the person behind the celebration this day who gave up his life for his faith, Saint Valentine!
St. Valentine - whether priest or bishop - was martyred on February 14, now celebrated as Valentine’s Day. According to most accounts, he was beaten and then beheaded, after a time of imprisonment. His skull is now kept in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome and is decorated with flower crowns on his feast day.
"He was either a Roman priest and physician who was martyred or he was the Bishop of Terni, Italy, who was also martyred in Rome, around 270 A.D. by Claudius the Goth,” who was the Roman emperor at the time, said Fr. Brendan Lupton, an associate professor of Church history at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois.
Some Valentine’s Day traditions can be correlated with St. Valentine’s life, such as the exchanging of cards, Lupton said, or the celebration of romantic love. “One (account) was that he had befriended the jailer's daughter, where he was being imprisoned, and when he died, he left her a note inscribed with ‘From your Valentine,’” Lupton said. Other accounts say that exchanging cards on Valentine’s Day recalls how St. Valentine would send notes to fellow Christians from prison.
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Sources:
(1) Catholic News Agency | St. Valentine: How a beheaded martyr became the poster child for romantic love
(2) Aleteia | The real story behind Valentine’s Day
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