Who was Valentine’s Day and why is his holiday celebrated on February 14th

Although he Saint Valentine It is celebrated all over the world in honor of Saint Valentinelittle is known about the figure of this saint and martyr of the Catholic Church.

He Catholic martyrology -a kind of catalog of saints and martyrs- includes two figures with the name Valentine.

“It is possible that it is the same saint who was brought from his city to Rome for martyrdom. This is suspected because, in addition to having the same name, both were beheaded on the Via Flaminia and they celebrate on February 14th”, underlined by the Catholic agency ACI Prensa.

Valentine, Roman priest who worked miracles

According to Catholic documents, A Roman priest named Valentinus lived during the reign of Emperor Claudius Gothicus (268-270).

Since Valentinus was famous for his sanctity, the emperor summoned him and attempted to convert him to his polytheistic religion without success. He even entrusted the task to one of his trusted men, named Asterius.

But Asterius not only failed to make Valentine renounce his faith, but he himself converted to Christianity, after seeing how His daughter, blind since childhood, miraculously recovered her sight through the priest’s intercession.

Aware of history, Claudius II He ordered Valentin to be beheaded on February 14 on the Roman Via Flaminia, near the place where he was later buried.

The Bishop of Terni who healed the sick

The other version about Saint Valentine is found in the 4th century and presents him as bishop of the Italian city of Terni. According to the story presented by Vatican News, in that period Crato, a very rich professor of Greek and Latin, offered half of his fortune to the bishop to heal his son from a physical deformity.

Refuse money, The bishop prayed for the boy, who thus recovered., and managed to convert Crato’s entire family to Christianity. Also in this case the miracle would have triggered the martyrdom of Valentino, who was executed on the Via Flaminia.

Why is he the patron saint of lovers?

According to Vatican News, the tradition of Saint Valentine as the patron saint of lovers originates from an ancient English text whose author, Geoffrey Chaucer, claims that birds begin to reproduce in mid-February, and in the northern hemisphere the date coincides with the beginning of spring.

Other versions collect other stories preserved by oral tradition. One of them is that Emperor Claudius II had prohibited the celebration of weddings so that men were available for war. Defying this decree, St. Valentine is said to have been a priest who secretly married couples..

In the year 496 Pope Gelasius established that Valentine’s Day should be celebrated every February 14, the anniversary of his martyrdom.