Saint Valentine: the priest and martyr

Saint Valentine was a priest of Rome, put to death for the faith of Christ in the third century and buried on the Flaminian Way. The Church keeps his feast on 14 February, the day of his martyrdom, and honours him as a patron of love rightly understood and of those preparing for marriage. He is a true saint of the Roman Martyrology — not the invented figure of greeting cards and February sentiment, but a man who gave his blood for Christ and whose memory the Church has kept since the fourth century.

Who Saint Valentine was

The most ancient witnesses know two, perhaps three, holy men of this name, and the Church has never pretended to more certainty than her sources allow. The Roman Martyrology records under 14 February Valentine, a priest of Rome, who, after many cures and much teaching, was beaten with clubs and beheaded under the Emperor Claudius (Claudius II, about the year 269). On the same day it names a second Valentine, bishop of Terni (Interamna), likewise put to death at Rome. The Roman Valentine was buried on the Flaminian Way, where a basilica was raised over his tomb as early as about 350, so that his cult is among the well-attested ones of the early Roman Church (Butler, Lives of the Saints, 14 February).

The acts that come down to us under his name belong to a later, legendary stratum, and we report them as the tradition reports them — as pious narrative grown up around a certain fact of martyrdom, in the same way the Church distinguishes the legend of St Cecilia or St Blaise from the bare record of their death. According to those acts, Valentine was a holy priest who continued to exercise his ministry, and above all to assist Christians, during the persecution.

Arrested and sent by the Emperor Claudius to the prefect of Rome, he refused every promise made to win him from Christ, was beaten with clubs, and at the last was beheaded. The legend adds that before his death he restored the sight of the blind daughter of Asterius, the official in whose custody he was held, and that this miracle won the whole household to the faith and to baptism.

The story of Saint Valentine and marriage

The thread that ties Saint Valentine to love and to wedlock is not found in the ancient acts. A much later popular story relates that the Emperor Claudius had forbidden young men to marry, holding that single men made better soldiers, and that Valentine, as a priest of God, defied the edict and joined Christian couples in marriage in secret. No ancient source records this, and it must be taken as legend. The custom of choosing a "Valentine" on 14 February is itself medieval: it rests on the belief, found in the time of Chaucer, that the birds began to pair on that day.

Whatever the history, it expresses a real truth about the man and his office: a priest of the Church stands for the holiness of marriage and the goodness of the love that God Himself blessed in Eden and that Our Lord raised to a sacrament. That is why the saint of 14 February has, over the centuries, become the patron of love — not the fleeting feeling of the world, but love ordered to God, faithful, fruitful, and willing to suffer.

This is the love the Church means when she uses the word. Saint John writes plainly: Dearly beloved, let us love one another: for charity is of God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God (1 John 4:7), and again, He that loveth not knoweth not God: for God is charity (1 John 4:8). Love is not first of all a sentiment but a participation in the very life of God, who is Love. The greatest of its proofs the Lord named Himself: Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13) — which is exactly what Valentine did. To honour him is to be recalled from the shallow February sentiment to the love that lays down its life.

Saint Valentine and the secular "Valentine's Day"

It must be said plainly, because it is so often confused: the modern custom of cards, flowers, and romantic sentiment on 14 February is not the feast of the saint, and grew up only in the late Middle Ages and after, chiefly from the poetry of Chaucer and others who linked the day to the pairing of birds in early spring. The Church's 14 February is the dies natalis — the birthday into heaven — of a martyr. The world has borrowed his name and emptied it of its meaning, turning a witness of blood into a festival of feeling.

We do not condemn the natural goods the day now celebrates; affection, courtship, and the love between husband and wife are good gifts of God. But the Christian who keeps this day rightly looks past the cards to the man whose name they bear: a priest who would not deny Christ, and who died for it. The proper way to honour love on the feast of Saint Valentine is to ask his prayers for the love that endures — the sacrament of Matrimony lived in fidelity, and the charity that is patient, is kind, envieth not (1 Corinthians 13:4).

A prayer to Saint Valentine

The Church's own prayer on his day is the collect of the Roman Missal, said at Mass as the commemoration of St Valentine:

Praesta, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui beati Valentini Martyris tui natalitia colimus, a cunctis malis imminentibus, eius intercessione, liberemur. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who keep the heavenly birthday of blessed Valentine, Thy Martyr, may by his intercession be delivered from all the evils that threaten us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

There is no ancient proper prayer to St Valentine for those in love; the collect above is the prayer of the Church. As with every prayer to the saints, we do not pray to Valentine as we pray to God; we ask a fellow member of Christ's body, made perfect in glory, to carry our petition to the Lord. The same order of intercession is set out in the Litany of the Saints (where St Valentine is not named), in which the whole Church on earth calls by name upon the whole Church in heaven.

A novena to Saint Valentine

A novena is nine days of prayer for a particular intention. In the older custom it is kept on the nine days before a feast, so a novena to Saint Valentine would be prayed from 5 to 13 February, ending on the eve of his day. There is no single official text; the faithful may repeat the collect above each day, naming their intention, with three Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes in honour of the Most Holy Trinity.

The novena is a sacramental devotion, not a guaranteed mechanism. Its power is the power of persevering prayer, which Our Lord Himself commended, and its fruit is whatever God in His wisdom judges best for the one who prays. Those wishing to learn the form more fully may read what we have written on what a novena is.

What Saint Valentine is patron saint of

By the long custom of the Christian people, Saint Valentine is honoured as a patron of lovers, of betrothed couples, and of those entering or living the sacrament of Matrimony. The patronage follows from the legend of the marriages he is said to have blessed and from the love he himself showed in dying for Christ.

He has also been invoked, from the miracle attributed to him, for the cure of epilepsy and other afflictions, and against fainting and the plague — for the saints of healing are sought not as workers of cures in their own right but as intercessors before God, who alone is the author of life and health. The same order holds even for saints learned in the healing arts, as St Hildegard of Bingen was in her writings on nature and medicine: the remedy may be studied, but the cure is asked of God.

Whatever the patronage, its ground is always the same: a saint is a friend of God who, having loved Him to the end, now pleads for those who call upon him. To take Valentine as patron of love is to ask that all our loves be drawn upward and made faithful, after the pattern of his own love, which counted not even life dear for the sake of Christ.

The feast of Saint Valentine

The feast of Saint Valentine, priest and martyr, falls on 14 February, the day of his death and of his birth into heaven. In the 1962 Roman calendar it is a commemoration, made at Mass and in the Divine Office (before the rubrical reform of 1960 it was ranked a Simple), the Church recalling on this day the priest who shed his blood on the Flaminian Way. The custom belongs to the rhythm of the traditional liturgical year, which sets each saint in his season and gives the faithful, in mid-February, this memory of a martyr's love. The calendar reformed in 1969 gave the same day to Sts Cyril and Methodius, the apostles of the Slavs, whose feast in the calendar of 1962 falls on 7 July.

Those who keep his feast do well to honour him as the Church honours him — not chiefly as the patron of a secular sentiment, but as one of the cloud of witnesses who, having shed his blood for Christ, now stands before God to plead for all who call upon him, and above all for the holiness of Christian love. Our guide to the Catholic saints sets St Valentine in the company of the other saints of the traditional calendar, month by month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Saint Valentine?

Saint Valentine was a priest of Rome, martyred for the faith of Christ about the year 269 under the Emperor Claudius II and buried on the Via Flaminia. The Roman Martyrology also names a Valentine, bishop of Terni, martyred at Rome on the same day. He is a true saint of the early Roman Church, honoured since the fourth century, and his feast is kept on 14 February.

Who was Saint Valentine, and how did he die?

According to the ancient acts under his name, Valentine was a holy priest who continued his ministry during the persecution, was brought before the Emperor Claudius and the prefect of Rome, refused to renounce Christ, was beaten with clubs, and at last was beheaded. The legend adds that he restored the sight of the blind daughter of Asterius, in whose custody he was held, winning the household to the faith.

What is the origin of Saint Valentine's Day?

The Church's 14 February is the feast of the martyr — the day of his death, kept since antiquity. The modern custom of cards, flowers, and romantic sentiment grew up only in the late Middle Ages and after, chiefly from the poetry of Chaucer and others who linked the day to the pairing of birds in early spring. The world borrowed the saint's name and emptied it of its meaning; the proper feast honours a man who died for Christ.

Why is Saint Valentine the patron of love and marriage?

A late popular story, not found in the ancient acts, relates that when the Emperor Claudius forbade young men to marry, Valentine as a priest joined Christian couples in marriage in secret. The story is legend, and the link with lovers really comes from the medieval custom of choosing a "Valentine" on the day the birds were believed to pair. What the patronage expresses is nonetheless true: a priest stands for the holiness of marriage and the love God blessed and raised to a sacrament. From this, and from his own death for Christ, he became patron of lovers and of the betrothed.

Is there a prayer to Saint Valentine?

Yes. The Church's own prayer is the collect of his day in the Roman Missal, asking that by his intercession we be delivered from all the evils that threaten us. As with all prayer to the saints, we ask his intercession before God, not a favour he grants in God's place.

When is the feast of Saint Valentine?

His feast falls on 14 February, the day of his martyrdom and his birth into heaven. In the 1962 Roman calendar it is a commemoration, made at Mass and in the Divine Office, the Church recalling the priest who shed his blood for Christ on the Flaminian Way.

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Sources. Roman Martyrology, 14 February (Valentine, priest and martyr of Rome; Valentine, bishop of Interamna). Roman Missal of 1962, collect of St Valentine (14 February). Butler, Lives of the Saints, 14 February (St Valentine). Scripture from the Douay-Rheims: 1 John 4:7–8, 16; John 15:13; 1 Corinthians 13:4, 13. On the communion of saints and intercession, the Catechism of the Council of Trent (Roman Catechism, 1566), Part I, on the Ninth Article of the Creed.