Other depictions of St. Valentine's arrests tell that he secretly married couples so husbands wouldn't have to go to war. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. St. Valentine is the Patron Saint of affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers, and young people. Valentine’s Day as a lovers’ festival dates at least from the 14th century. Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole in his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate now called Porta del Popolo, formerly, Porta Valetini. Victorian-Era 'Vinegar' Valentines Could Be Mean and Hostile.

Corrections? If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you.

St. Valentine was presented with the judge's blind daughter and told to restore her sight. According to the ancient writer Plutarch, some young married women believed that being hit with the skins promoted conception and easy childbirth.
Fr.

We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. Valentine's martyrdom has not gone unnoticed by the general public. Eventually, St. Valentine was also arrested, condemned to death for his faith, beaten … Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. St. Valentine was later arrested again for continuing to try to convert people to Christianity. In the 1370s or 1380s, he wrote a poem called "Parliament of Fowls" that contains this line: “For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate.”. The judge immediately put Valentine and his faith to the test. In Kelly’s view, Chaucer was looking for a way to celebrate King Richard II’s betrothal to Anne of Bohemia on that day and found that was the feast day for Valentine of Genoa. St. Valentine, (died 3rd century, Rome; feast day February 14), name of one or two legendary Christian martyrs whose lives seem to be historically based. “It’s great to have something to look forward to.”. “They’re both mythical to begin with, and the connection with love is even more mythical,” says Henry Kelly, a scholar of medieval and renaissance literature and history at UCLA. Chaucer and other writers of his time celebrated romance between knights and noble ladies who could never marry—often because she was married already—creating tropes of yearning and tragic obstacles that still drive our romantic comedies today. The now faithful judge then freed all of his Christian inmates. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. But there’s one final twist in the myth of Saint Valentine. Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a tidy, romantic backstory to the holiday, scholars who have studied its origins say there’s very little basis for these accounts. Judge Asterius was humbled and obeyed Valentine's requests. Today, many people make the pilgrimage to the church to honor the courage and memory of this Christian saint.
After all, England is still awfully cold in mid-February.

Other narratives identify him as the bishop of Terni, Italy, who was martyred, apparently also in Rome, and whose relics were later taken to Terni. Valentine was a popular name in ancient Rome, and there are at least 50 stories of different saints by that name. Saint Valentine, who according to some sources is actually two distinct historical characters who were said to have healed a child while imprisoned and executed by decapitation. Click Here for St. Valentine Prayer's Saint Valentine, officially known as Saint Valentine of Rome, is a third-century Roman saint widely celebrated on … In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.