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The saints

St. Valentine

The real martyr behind the chocolates, and how his day came to be about love.

Feast: 14 February (date from the Roman Martyrology; not on the universal calendar) · 3rd century · The early Church · Rome and Terni, Italy

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Fresco of St. Valentine as a bishop in a miter and red cope, holding a book.

Giosuè Tacconi, 2019. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Home / The saints / St. Valentine

The Via Flaminia, outside Rome

The early lists of martyrs name at least three Valentines on 14 February.1

One was a priest at Rome and another a bishop of Terni, and both were buried on the Via Flaminia.1

Their stories as we have them come from much later and are not reliable history.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers him as a Roman martyr; his link with lovers comes from medieval custom, not his life.

01St. Valentine

How it became about love

In the Middle Ages, people in England and France believed birds began to pair on 14 February.1

So the day became a day for lovers and for sending love notes, and Valentine’s name went with it.1

Live it this week

Love someone who is not your sweetheart

Valentine’s day grew into a day of love. This week, show real love to someone lonely (a widower, a single friend, an old neighbor) with a card, a call or a visit.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Valentine”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.