Who was Saint Valentine?


Certain saints seem to have multiple personas. Saint Patrick apparently existed more than once. As did Saint Valentine.  Oral history and oral tradition changes things over time. The famous request from WWI, ‘Send reinforcements, we’re going to advance.’, after a number of oral transmissions, is reputed to have become ‘Send three and fourpence, we’re going to a dance.’… So it is with Saint Valentine. There is a shrine to Valentine in Whitefriars Church in Dublin.  There’s a Valentine of Terni, Italy, made a bishop around AD 197. He was later martyred. There’s a Valentine of Rome, a priest, martyred about AD 269. There was another dude in Africa – but not a lot is known about him except he was mentioned in early martyrologies  linked to February 14th.  Predating the Christian version of St.Valentine, a Roman festival of Lupercalia was celebrated between the 13th and 15th February. This involved romance of the ‘non-box of chocolates’ variety. You know those Romans! Investigate this one yourselves…. We at GFI have no opinion on which Saint Valentine is THE Saint Valentine. We’re not telling you which story to like,  except to say the Romans were gourmets. More on this theme anon…