Novena to St Valentine

The novena to St Valentine is the nine-day prayer to the third-century Roman priest and martyr — beginning "O glorious advocate and protector, Saint Valentine" — asking his intercession for love and marriage, for engaged couples and the happily wed, and, less known but very old, for those afflicted with epilepsy and the falling sickness. His feast is kept on 14 February, so the novena is traditionally begun on 5 February to close on the feast. Below we give the full authentic text, the variants the faithful most often seek, how to pray it, and the true story of the saint behind the day the world has all but forgotten.

The full novena to St Valentine

This is the traditional novena prayer, said once on each of the nine days. Each day, make the Sign of the Cross, say the prayer below, name your intention, and close with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

O glorious advocate and protector, Saint Valentine, look with pity upon our wants, hear our requests, attend to our prayers, relieve by thy intercession the miseries under which we labour, and obtain for us the divine blessing, that we may be found worthy to join thee in praising the Almighty for all eternity: through the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pray, then, O holy Martyr, for the faithful who are so persevering in celebrating thy memory. The day of judgment will reveal to us all thy glorious merits. Oh, intercede for us, that we may then be made thy companions at the right hand of the Great Judge, and be united with thee eternally in heaven.

(Here mention your request.)

Let us pray. Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that we who solemnize the festival of blessed Valentine, thy Martyr, may, by his intercession, be delivered from all the evils that threaten us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Valentine, advocate and protector, pray for us.

Then say:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The prayer is the same on all nine days; what changes is the deepening of your intention and the steadiness of your trust. If you are new to this form of prayer and wonder why nine days, see our guide to what is a novena.

The St Valentine novena for love

St Valentine is, above every other title, the patron of love and of holy marriage — of courtship, of engaged couples, and of husbands and wives. The novena "for love" is simply the prayer above, offered with that intention named plainly and purely. It is important to name it rightly. This is not a charm to make one person love another against their will, nor a spell of the kind the world sells every February; the Church condemns all such superstition. It is a petition to a martyr who died rather than betray the truth, asking that God grant a love that is chaste, faithful, and ordered to marriage — the only love worth a novena.

Those praying for a future spouse may add, after naming the request:

St Valentine, glorious martyr, who chose to lay down thy life rather than deny thy Lord, obtain for me a heart that loves as thou didst love — with fidelity, with purity, and with courage. If it be God's will, lead me to a holy marriage; and if He calls me otherwise, teach me to find my whole love in Him. Amen.

Engaged couples often pray it together through the nine days before the feast, asking a blessing on their coming marriage. Those already married bring their union to him, that it may be guarded and renewed. For the deeper work of building a Christian home, this novena is well joined to the Novena to St Joseph, patron of the home and of families, and to the Novena to St Anne, the mother of Our Lady.

The St Valentine novena for epilepsy

Long before he was the patron of sweethearts, St Valentine was invoked against epilepsy and the falling sickness — a patronage older and graver than the modern feast of cards and flowers. In many lands his day was kept as the day to pray for the epileptic, and shrines dedicated to him drew the afflicted; in German-speaking countries the disease was even called Valentine's sickness. The reason is partly the sound of his name, partly the constant tradition that miracles of healing were worked at his tomb. To pray the novena for this intention, say the prayer above and name the sufferer, adding:

St Valentine, before whose relics the sick have long sought healing, intercede for (name), who suffers the falling sickness. Obtain, if it be for the good of this soul, deliverance from this affliction; and in every case, the grace to bear it with patience, and the strength of body and spirit to serve God faithfully. Amen.

For the sick more broadly, this petition sits well beside the Novena to St Peregrine, invoked against cancer and grave illness, and, for the mind and its troubles, the Novena to St Dymphna.

The short prayer to St Valentine

Not every day allows the full novena, and there is an older, briefer invocation that carries the same trust. It may be said on its own or added to the novena:

O glorious St Valentine, patron of holy love and faithful martyr of Christ, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Obtain for us the grace to love God above all things, and our neighbour for His sake; and bring our petitions before the throne of the Most High. St Valentine, pray for us. Amen.

How to pray the novena to St Valentine

A novena is nine days of the same steady asking, and this one is simple to keep.

• When to begin. To close on the feast, start on 5 February and pray through 14 February, the last day being the feast itself. A novena may, of course, be begun on any nine consecutive days when the need is pressing.
• The nine days. Say the prayer once each day, ideally at a fixed hour, with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. Name one intention and keep to it for all nine days.
• Disposition. Ask in submission to God's will. Add the novena to Mass or Holy Communion where you can, and to a decade of the Rosary. A novena does not compel God; it commends a need to a friend of God and waits in trust.
• On the feast. Keep 14 February with thanksgiving, whatever the answer — for the grace we most need is rarely the one we would have chosen.

Who was St Valentine? The story of the martyr

Behind the customs of the day stands a real martyr of the early Church, and the traditional account is plain and severe. According to Butler's Lives of the Saints, Valentine was a holy priest in Rome who, together with St Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs during the persecution under the Emperor Claudius II — a dangerous charity that marked him out. He was apprehended and sent to the prefect of Rome, who, finding that no promise and no threat could move him to renounce his faith, ordered him to be beaten with clubs and then beheaded. This was carried out on 14 February, about the year 270.

His body was buried on the Via Flaminia, and Pope St Julius I is said to have built a church in his honour near the Milvian Bridge, by the gate once called the Porta Valentini. The greater part of his relics rest today in the Church of St Praxedes in Rome. There is some ancient confusion of persons — a Valentine who was a Roman priest and a Valentine who was Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), both martyred and both buried along the Via Flaminia — and scholars have long debated whether these are one man or two. The Church honours the martyr, whatever the histories cannot finally settle.

The link between St Valentine and lovers is later and, in truth, only devotional. One tradition holds that the churchmen of an earlier age, seeking to Christianize a lingering pagan custom of drawing names in mid-February, set the names of saints in the billets in place of the old lots. Another, medieval, tradition held that the birds began to pair on his feast — and so the day of the martyr became the day of sweethearts. What is certain is the man himself: a priest who served the persecuted, would not deny his Lord, and was clubbed and beheaded for it. Whatever the world has made of his name, the Church keeps him as he was — a martyr, an advocate, and a protector.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is St Valentine the patron saint of?

St Valentine is the patron of love and marriage — of engaged couples, of a happy marriage, and of lovers who seek a holy and faithful union. Older than that patronage, and still very much alive in traditional devotion, he is invoked against epilepsy and the falling sickness, and is honoured as a patron of beekeepers and of the city of Terni. Above all he is what the Church first knew him as: a priest and martyr of Rome.

When do you pray the St Valentine novena?

The novena is traditionally prayed over the nine days from 5 to 14 February, ending on his feast day. Because a novena is simply nine days of the same prayer, it may also be begun at any time a grace is urgently sought — for a coming engagement, a marriage, or a sick loved one — and does not have to fall in February.

What is the St Valentine novena for?

It is prayed for whatever a soul rightly needs, but three intentions are most common: for holy love and marriage (for a future spouse, for engaged couples, for husbands and wives); for healing from epilepsy and the falling sickness, his oldest patronage; and, as with any novena, for the general help, protection, and blessing of a powerful friend before God.

Is there a printable PDF of the novena to St Valentine?

The full text of the nine-day novena is the O glorious advocate and protector prayer given above, said once a day with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, and your own intention named. You may copy it to keep beside you for the nine days. The Iter Fidei app carries the complete devotion with audio, so it can be prayed from a phone without a printed sheet.

How did St Valentine die?

According to Butler's Lives of the Saints, he was arrested during the persecution under Claudius II, brought before the prefect of Rome, and — when he would not renounce his faith — beaten with clubs and beheaded on 14 February, about the year 270. He is honoured as a martyr, and the greater part of his relics rest in the Church of St Praxedes in Rome.

Why is St Valentine associated with love if he was a martyr?

The connection is devotional and medieval, not historical. He was, and is, honoured first as a priest martyred for the faith. The tie to lovers grew later — from a tradition that the birds pair on his feast in mid-February, and from an effort to Christianize an older custom of drawing names. The novena honours the true St Valentine: a martyr whose intercession we may rightly seek for a love that is chaste, faithful, and blessed by God.

Can I pray the novena for someone who is not Catholic, or to find a spouse?

Yes. We may always ask a saint's prayers for another soul, whatever their state, and to seek a holy spouse is a good and worthy intention. Ask, though, for God's will and not merely our own — for a love that is ordered to marriage and to Heaven, never as a charm to bend another's heart. So prayed, the novena is a true devotion; prayed as a spell, it would be superstition, which the Church forbids.

Pray the novena to St Valentine with day-by-day reminders and audio in the Iter Fidei app. Download it here.

Sources. Butler, Lives of the Saints, 14 February, St Valentine, Priest and Martyr; the traditional novena prayer O glorious advocate and protector, Saint Valentine and its collect (Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God…), as carried in traditional Catholic prayer-books; the Roman Martyrology, 14 February.