Valentine
was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted
the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended,
and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his
promises to make him renounce his faith in effectual, commended him to
be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed
on February 14.
About the year 270. Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near
Ponte Mole to his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate
now called Porta del Popolo, formerly, Porta Valetini.
The greatest part of his relics are now in the church of Saint
Praxedes. His name is celebrated as that of an illustrious martyr in the
sacramentary of St. Gregory, the Roman Missal of Thomasius, in the
calendar of F. Fronto and that of Allatius, in Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker
and all other martyrologies on this day. To abolish the heathens lewd
superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honor of
their goddess Februata Juno, on the fifteenth of this month, several
zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on this
day.
The 14th was also a designated a feast day (until 1969, when it was
dropped from the Roman Catholic calendar) to honor two Christian saint
(at least one named Saint Valentine) martyred by the Roman Emperor
Claudius II Gothicus. There is a little bit of love stuff in this part,
though -- the reason Saint Valentine was killed (beheaded, actually) was
that he continued to marry young couples even though Claudius forbade
it. Apparently Claudius thought that married soldiers weren't as good as
single soldiers. |
