How the legend behind Saint Valentine arose, the “saint of love” that probably never existed

When he was Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius Claudius (214-270) decided to forbid soldiers to marry: he understood that a warrior without family ties was braver, because he was less afraid of risking his life.

It is said that a bishop named Valentinewho believed in love, continued to celebrate marriage ties between soldiers, thus disrespecting the imperial decree.

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There are also reports of a religious named Valentín who distributed roses in the streets. And stories that say there was a Valentine who cut hearts out of parchment and gave them to soldierssso that they would look at those cards and remember their loved ones.

Or even the story that a priest Valentine contradicted the plans of influential relatives and, recognizing that there was a genuine feeling, agreed to formalize the union between a young Christian man and his pagan girlfriend.

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In the records of Catholic saints, there are eleven named Valentine. And at least three of them —as Hagiography scholar Thiago Maerki, a researcher at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and an associate of the Hagiography Society in the United States points out— are the protagonists of reports with messages of love.

“These three characters are often confused, they are mixed,” he stresses.

“The Saint Valentine that the Church celebrates, the Saint Valentine of Rome, has more to do with the history of a doctor who became a priest and, against the emperor’s law, continued to celebrate weddings between soldiers“.

“But its very existence is disputed,” he notes.

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If it is difficult to distinguish one Valentine from another, it is even more difficult to prove what really happened and what is nothing more than a legend built up over the centuries.

And, as the figure celebrated by Catholicism on February 14 is so rich in controversy, given the impossibility of confirming what is reality and what is myth, the Catholic Church itself saw fit to remove it from the traditional liturgical calendar, already in the 1960s, after the Second Vatican Council.

Masses in his honor ended up being celebrated only in communities where tradition is strong.

Creation of the myth

In the official documents of the Church, the information is succinct and does not allow to differentiate one Valentine from another.

The Roman martyrology, where the biographies of the saints are found, is brief. On February 14 Valentine is mentioned, followed by the brief explanation that he was martyred”in Rome, in Vila Flaminia, next to the Milvio bridge“. Nothing more.

“The missal before the Second Vatican Council does not give details either, but it indicates that Valentine was a priest and a martyr, and that his martyrdom occurred around the year 270,” says researcher and scholar of the lives of the saints José Luís Lira, professor of the State University of the Valley of Acaraú, in Brazil.

Some relics attributed to Saint Valentine rest in the Basilica that bears his name, in Terni. (WIKICOMMONS).

He explains that what defined the imaginary about Valentine’s Day ended up being “oral and written literature”.

“Legends are being created around them, as was the custom of these first Christians. The voice of the people was the one that celebrated its saints. And these cults, popular traditions, gained strength in the Middle Ages. Until what it was not official, until it was recognized by the Church, which has no choice but to assume the tradition as official”, says Maerki.

behind the fountains

In the midst of so many contradictions, the common thread of what could have been the true Valentine’s Day is the information that ends up being confirmed by different sources.

Thus, it is possible to place the saint of love as someone who lived in Rome in the third century of the current era and clashed with the government of Emperor Claudius. It is also consistent with the existence of the Milvio bridge, over the Tiber river, mentioned in the martyrology.

“It is from the year 207 approximately”, emphasizes Lira. “It is cited in the course of the Second Punic War, on the occasion of the return from the Battle of Metauro”.

Too it makes sense to believe that he was martyred, as this fate was common for prominent Christians of his daywhen Rome saw that group as a threat to order.

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The date of February 14 as the date of his death is possibly a late invention. A convenient invention, by the way, in a process imposed by the Church, when it became the official religion, from the fourth century, with the aim of absorbing and systematically redefine pagan practices.

“Even with Christianity already official, at first the rituals today called pagan, of the Romans, coexisted with Christianity,” says Vatican expert Filipe Domingues, doctor by the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome and deputy director of the Lay Center of Rome.

“The Church of that time was gradually creating parties, memories and practices to suppress even pagan practices. The temples became churches, and the rituals began to resignify themselves,” he adds.

Because, In the year 496, Pope Gelasius I (410-196) established that Saint Valentine should be celebrated on February 14. The idea was not accidental.

the pagan festival

During this period, about a month before the start of spring in the northern hemisphere, ancient Rome had a festival called Lupercaliaa ritual for fertility.

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“It was a time when people got together intimately, sexually, as a religious ritual. The period also indicated the start of sowing and they asked for the blessing of the gods so that it would be a fertile year, with a lot of production,” Domingues contextualizes.

The Pope wanted to frame what already existed within Christian morality.

“He wanted to put an end to that and then he needed to create a Christian identity for the ritual. He made Saint Valentine the patron saint of lovers, of couples,” says the Vatican expert.

“Church did not completely abandon existing practices but aligned them, tried to put a Christian justification to the rites and social relations that were typically pagan“.

In this sense, Domingues comments that Valentín’s choice could have been random.

“There is no reason as far as we know,” he says. And it is possible that later legends full of love stories were created.

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“It was at that moment that the memory of Valentine’s Day began to be associated with the idea of ​​a saint of love, of a patron saint of lovers,” says Maerki.

“The Church instituted Saint Valentine by fostering a Christian response to an ancient tradition,” sums up historian Denise Wanderley Paes de Barros, a professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University.

the popular date

The date is seen like this in much of the world and explored by merchants and restaurant owners.

“Curiously, what was born as a pagan festival and was later absorbed by Christianity, today has returned to being a secular celebration“, analyzes Domingues. “The name of the saint is used, but it is no longer a Christian festival.”

What happened is that very probably the entire biographical construction of Valentín —or the set of valentines— was full of fiction.

And from the Second Vatican Council, there was an effort by the Church “to eliminate the memory of saints who might have a possibly legendary origin, that is, who were nothing more than a mythological construction,” explains Maerki.

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“During the Council the need to confirm the existence of certain saints was discussed,” Lira underlines.

“As a result, some made the obligatory celebration optional. Saint Paul VI (1897-1978), Pope, in 1969, reformed the calendar for the celebration of saints and the memory of Saint Valentine became optional.”

“This was mainly due to the existence of more than one Valentine in the martyrology and without many details regarding his existence. The act of martyrdom was in charge of each Church, so it was not possible to give full veracity to the data”, adds the hagiologist.

Much later, there was a concern to have greater criteria to declare himself a Christian saint.

Maerki comments that it is “very difficult to say that Valentine did not exist” simply because “as I remember, at least, it existed and it existssince to this day it is celebrated by many groups within the Church”.

Paes de Barros adds that, at that time, “The Catholic Church realized that all of them [los Valentín] They had no historical value..

A reconstruction of Valentín’s face made by the Brazilian designer Cícero Moraes. (CICERO MORAES).

Analyzing the available documentation and reports, discrepancies and historical coincidences were noted in figures buried in different places, for example.

pilgrimage sites

But if the tombs of saints end up being points of religious pilgrimage, there are at least three important places in Italy when you think of Valentine’s Day.

In Rome, the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin a skull attributed to Saint Valentine is kept in a reliquary.

The corresponding remains are found in the basilica of Saint Valentine in the city of Terni; one of the historical figures who would become Saint Valentine was Bishop of Interamna, now Terni, in Umbria.

Also in Italy, the Church of Saint George, in Monselice, in the province of Paduahas a tomb with mortal remains attributed to another of the Valentines.

A specialist in the facial reconstruction of saints and other ancient personalities, the Brazilian designer Cícero Moraes recreated both Valentines in 3D, based on images of their well-preserved skulls.

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Source: Elcomercio