How Much Do You Know About St. Valentine?

Every year Catholics and non-Catholics around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day – a day set aside for courtly love and romance. But what do you really know about the saint behind the celebration? As it turns out, not much is known about him in general. But here are a few things you probably didn’t know about St. Valentine.
 
Although he is still honored in the official Roman Martyrology, his feast was actually removed from the liturgical calendar in 1969. But St. Valentine is far from a saint who has fallen from favor. The only reason he was removed from the calendar was because of the lack of reliable information on his life.

Part of the reason there is little reliable information on his life could be the sheer number of Sts. Valentine that exist. There are at least 11 different Sts. Valentine commemorated by the Roman Catholic Church. Valentine was a popular name in late antiquity, and there were at least two other Sts. Valentine who lived at the same time as the saint we honor on February 14. But there are Sts. Valentine who lived even in the 19th and 20th Centuries as well.

One thing that is generally agreed upon is that St. Valentine was arrested by Emperor Claudius II. It is thought that he was arrested because of his attempts at converting people to Christianity, and because he performed weddings for Christians. Legends say that Emperor Claudius had banned marriages because he believed single men made better soldiers. St. Valentine supposedly performed weddings so that the husband could avoid being sent off to war.

After St. Valentine was arrested for celebrating Christian weddings and preaching Christ, Emperor Claudius actually began to take a strong liking to him. But when St. Valentine tried to convert him, he issued an ultimatum – renounce faith in Christ, or face beheading. When he refused to renounce his faith he was taken outside the Flaminian Gate on the northside of Rome and executed on February 14, 269.

It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that St. Valentine’s feast day became associated with romantic courtly love. Alban Butler – the celebrated author of Butler’s Lives of the Saints – speculated that the holiday was invented to supplant the pagan holiday “Lupercalia.” Others have suggested that responsibility for the day’s romantic associations lies squarely on the shoulders of the famous 14th Century English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer.

Although he is best known as the patron saint of engaged couples, happy marriages, and lovers, St. Valentine is also the patron saint of… beekeepers? Sounds odd at first, but consider that bees are often seen to symbolize love. Because of their efforts to cultivate and nourish their beehives, beekeepers symbolize the protectors of love, marriage, and family. So it makes sense that they’d need a patron saint who is closely associated with love, marriage, and family life.

It wasn’t until 469 AD, over 200 years after St. Valentine’s martyrdom, that Pope Gelasius marked February 14 as the feast of St. Valentine. So this Valentine’s Day, if you’re dating, engaged, preparing for marriage, or already married, be sure to entrust your relationship to the intercession of this saint of love. And may the honey of Godly love flow abundantly in your relationships!