The patron saint of lovers, he was the first to bless the marriage of a pagan and a Christian. On February 14, we remember Saint. Valentine (d. 269), bishop and martyr. His relics are in Terni (Italy). He is the patron saint of lovers and beekeepers, and is also invoked in cases of gout and epilepsy.
Fr. Arkadiusz Nocoń – Vatican
The information provided by the Christian tradition regarding this very popular saint is extremely scanty and inaccurate. This is partly due to the fact that he lived in very distant times, the 3rd century following Christ, when the enemies of the Church persecuted not only its members, but also their memory, destroying, among others. “Martyr Files”, i.e. glorious descriptions of their martyrdom. It is therefore not surprising that when the times of persecution ended, in order to recreate certain events, incomplete and sometimes even contradictory information was passed on to future generations. About Saint Valentine, we know for sure that he gave his life for Christ and his brothers in faith – the most that a man can do. All other events from his biography are secondary, although undoubtedly beautiful and worth recalling.
It is reported, for example, that during the persecutions he accompanied the martyrs during their trials and executions. He himself was arrested and subjected to torture intended to make him renounce his faith. Unbowed, he was beheaded by the sword.
Another legend says that as bishop of Terni he zealously converted pagans. Invited to Rome by a certain Crato, a pagan philosopher, he healed his lame son. This event caused Kraton to be baptized along with his entire family and his disciples. When this was reported to the prefect of the city, he ordered Valentine to be imprisoned and beheaded in prison.
There are also surviving records according to which Bishop Walenty secretly performed weddings for couples in love. Since the law at that time prohibited marriage for a man who had not yet completed his military service, the bishop was arrested and sentenced to death. Another legend says that he was the first to bless a marriage between a pagan and a Christian. Known from the very beginning for his sympathy for lovers, he was considered their patron following his death.
From the book “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” by Pope St. John Paul II: “Love cannot be taught, and at the same time, nothing can be taught as much as love! As a young priest, I learned to love human love. This is one of the basic contents on which I focused my priesthood, my ministry on the pulpit, in the confessional, and also using the written word. If you love human love, there is also a strong need to commit all your strength to ‘beautiful love’. Because love is beautiful. Young people, in fact, always look for the beauty of love, they want their love to be beautiful. If they give in to their weaknesses, if they follow everything that might be called ‘the scandal of the modern world’, then deep in their hearts they long for beautiful and pure love” (n. 19).
February 14 (the probable day of Saint Valentine’s death) is celebrated in many countries as the day of lovers, the so-called “Valentine’s Day”, in which people who are close to their hearts are shown proof of sympathy by sending them flowers, red hearts and postcards. Each such manifestation of sympathy and love is undoubtedly something beautiful and good.
On the other hand, the mentioned “Valentine’s Day” is also a kind of attempt at “theft”. Cardinal Stanisław Nagy: “They want to steal from us this saint, concerned regarding beautiful love, and sacrilegiously make him the patron of just any kind of love, a love that recognizes no laws. This was not the love Saint served. Walenty, because this is not the kind of love that is beautiful.
Every year, on February 14, at the grave of St. Valentine’s Day in Terni, couples in love from all over Italy gather to celebrate their engagement. They want to experience their engagement as a gift from God and the most beautiful time in their lives. In this time of grace, they want not only to get to know each other better and strengthen emotionally, but above all to practice in love, the love that is “patient, kind, does not envy, does not seek its own, does not commit shamelessness, remembers no wrong and never ceases” (cf. 1 Cor 13:4-8).
