Monday, February 14, 2011

February 14: St Valentine, Memorial


The feast of St. Valentine (d c269) was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as a Roman priest, a bishop, or a martyr from Africa. 

Most of the legends that associate the saint with romantic love seem to have been fourteenth century inventions associated with Chaucer.

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