It's All About SAINT Valentine. Or Is it? Really?

St. Valentine receiving a rosary from the Blessed Mother.

Just who was Saint Valentine and why is the day observed?

Well, it's all rather confusing. And it appears as if he could have been any one of a number of people.

Saint Valentine (from the Italian: San Valentino, Latin: Valentinus), officially Saint Valentine of Terni, is a widely recognized third-century Roman saint commemorated on February 14. Since the High Middle Ages he has been associated with a tradition of courtly love.

All that is reliably known of the saint commemorated on February 14 is his name and that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery on the Via Flaminia close to the Ponte Milvio to the north of Rome on that day. It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to be identified as one saint or the conflation of two saints of the same name. Several different martyrologies have been added to later hagiographies that are unreliable. And, today we commemorate not the birth of this Saint but what is considered to be the date of his death or martyrdom.

Because so little is reliably known of him, in 1969 the Catholic Church removed his name from the General Roman Calendar, leaving his liturgical celebration to local calendars. But, the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize him as a saint, listing him as such in the February 14 entry in the Roman Martyrology, and authorizing liturgical veneration of him on February 14 in any place where that day is not devoted to some other obligatory celebration in accordance with the rule that on such a day the Mass may be that of any saint listed in the Martyrology for that day. So, if you heard that Valentino/Valentinus is no longer a saint, you heard wrong. Saint Valentine's Church in Rome, built in 1960 for the needs of the Olympic Village, continues as a modern, well-visited parish church.

Saint Valentine is commemorated in the Anglican Communion, as well as in Lutheranism. By some of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter of Rome is celebrated on July 6 and Hieromartyr Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30.

Notwithstanding, because of the relative obscurity of these two saints in the East and since there is no commemoration of St. Valentine in the Greek Orthodox Church, members of the Greek Orthodox Church named Valentinos (male) or Valentina (female) may observe their name day on the Western ecclesiastical calendar date of February 14.