Post by Galadriel on Feb 6, 2008 17:44:23 GMT
Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is one of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on 14 February, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on 14 February. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or two or more saints of the same name. For this reason this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine is celebrated on 30 July.
The name "Valentine" does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, which was compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine 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 14 February is described either as:
* A priest in Rome
* A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni)
* A martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
The name "Valentine", derived from valens (worthy), was popular in late antiquity.
Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.
The official Roman Martyrology for 14 February mentions only one Saint Valentine.
Jack Oruch has argued that the idea that the feast for one such dimly conceived figure may have been created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia, still celebrated in fifth-century Rome on 15 February, is a figment of the English eighteenth-century antiquarian Alban Butler, embellished by Francis Douce. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.
While a Website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and other sources give different lists of Saint Valentines, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, the Roman Martyrology lists seven: a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop?) buried on the Via Flaminia (14 February), a priest from Viterbo (3 November), a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (7 January), a fifth-century priest and hermit (4 July), a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (25 October), Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (24 November) and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (18 September).
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine is celebrated on 30 July.
The name "Valentine" does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, which was compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine 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 14 February is described either as:
* A priest in Rome
* A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni)
* A martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
The name "Valentine", derived from valens (worthy), was popular in late antiquity.
Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.
The official Roman Martyrology for 14 February mentions only one Saint Valentine.
Jack Oruch has argued that the idea that the feast for one such dimly conceived figure may have been created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia, still celebrated in fifth-century Rome on 15 February, is a figment of the English eighteenth-century antiquarian Alban Butler, embellished by Francis Douce. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.
While a Website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and other sources give different lists of Saint Valentines, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, the Roman Martyrology lists seven: a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop?) buried on the Via Flaminia (14 February), a priest from Viterbo (3 November), a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (7 January), a fifth-century priest and hermit (4 July), a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (25 October), Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (24 November) and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (18 September).
I wish everyone here, single or with someone, a very happy Valentine's Day, I hope no one feels alone cuz there is always someone thinking of you...