La festa degli innamorati, la festa di San Valentino….people either love Valentine’s Day or think it is just una festa consumista – a consumeristic ‘Hallmark Holiday’. The festa has been around for a long time, but what do we know about San Valentino?
February 14th was declared St Valentine’s feast day in 496 AD by Pope Galerius, but the history and reason why is obscure. The saint’s relics are apparently in churches all over Europe, including Terni, Vienna, Malta, Poland, Dublin, Madrid, Prague, Santa Maria in Cosmedin and Santa Prassede in Roma. How is this possible? I know some people are big boned, but how many bones did he have?
Well…. there are at least 11 Saints named Valentino, including one woman, Valentina of Palestine, and a Pope who lasted only 40 days. That would explain all the bones! There were so many of them that their stories got mixed together. At least 2 of these ‘Valentini’ died on Feb 14th around the year 270 AD. One was a priest in Roma and one was the Bishop of Terni in Umbria. There are enough similarities between these 2 that they could have been the same person, moving from Terni to Roma. They both died as a result of their faith near the Ponte Milvio and Via Flaminia, which coincidentally is the road that leads to Umbria!
San Valentino the priest of Roma was known for performing marriages. Emperor Claudius II needed soldiers to fight his many military pursuits. He believed that soldiers would perform better on the battlefield if they did not have spouses, so he banned marriage. Another version is that Christians, who were persecuted at the time, were forbidden to marry. Valentino secretly married soldiers and/or Christians. This landed him in prison. He is also said to have cut hearts out of parchment to give to the couples he married to remind them of their vows.
The Bishop of Terni was arrested for evangelizing. The Roman judge Asterius decided to test him by asking that he restore his blind daughter’s vision. Her sight was restored and Asterius released the Bishop from prison. Valentino went right back to performing illegal marriages, and was sentenced to death. Before his execution, he left a note for Asterius’ daughter signed ‘from your Valentine’.
The bishop of Terni was also known for providing a dowry for a poor girl so that she could marry the man she loved. With this act, he came to be the protector of innamorati.
San Valentino became associated with being a champion for amore, young lovers, engaged couples and marriage and we can thank him for Valentine’s cards and flowers. He is also the patron saint of epilepsy, beekeeping, the plague and travelling! What an interesting combination! We do not know if these stories are fatto o finzione-fact or fiction, but like it or not, Valentine’s Day has been celebrated and associated with devotion and love since the 14th Century.
Auguri per la festa di San Valentino. Baci e abbracci, Cristina
This post is written as part of the dolcevitabloggers linkup, hosted by Jasmine, Kelly and Kristie the 3rd Sunday of the month. Click here to check out what the rest of the Dolce Vita bloggers have written on this month’s topic ‘Romance in Italy’.
Image credit: Il Bacio, 1859 Francesco Hayez from Wikimedia Commons.
Un po' di pepe 
Very interesting band well written … Loved this post … ♥️♥️ Love!!that magic thing … You can’t force it … You can’t buy it … But it is truly magic for those who have experienced it!!! XOx
You can’t explain it either! Well said Susanne 😘
This is such a fascinating post. Mille grazie!
Grazie♥️
So interesting Cristina, grazie 🙂
I enjoy the story of San Valentino! Love is a powerful thing – in all its forms! 🙂
So true LuLu. Viva l’amore!
Wow…I didn’t know that there were several St. Valentini! I enjoyed reading about their stories. I learned from my friend from Perugia that people from Perugia don’t like to celebrate Valentine’s Day because they are rivals with Terni- and their patron saint is San Valentino. It’s interesting though that Perugia is known for their chocolates! Hehe…all business on Valentine’s Day the people of Perugia! 🙂 #DolceVitaBloggers
Interesting. So the Perugini don’t like San Valentino as he is their rival’s patron, but they like to ‘fa affari’ on the feast day. Furbacchioni! Ciao, Cristina
We didn’t know any of this and hadn’t even thought about it before! It’s so interesting to learn the history of what we celebrate! Thank you!
Lucy and Kelly x
theblossomtwins.com
Prego! I love finding out the background behind customs. Ciao, Cristina
Very interesting post! I love the idea of cutting hearts out of parchment to remind couples of their wedding vows, very sweet.
Ciao Mary! Molto romantico isn’t it? Ciao, Cristina
I had heard of some of the origin stories you mention but not all of them! Really enlightening. I guess we’ll never know but they are all really sweet in their own way. Thanks for joining us! #DolceVitaBloggers per sempre!
Aloha Jasmine. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I like to think they all have some base of truth behind them ♥️ciao, Cristina
Love these stories. I kind of want to believe them all as it’s so sweet. There must be some truth in them I’m sure!
Me too! I guess we are both hopeless romantics♥️
Ciao Cristina! This was absolutely fascinating and so well written! I didn’t know about all of the Valentini and the big boned part made me chuckle! I am usually quite impartial to Valentine’s Day, but I do think knowing this history, whether fact or fiction, makes it more interesting & meaningful. Thank you so much for joining us for #DolceVitaBloggers!
Grazie Kelly. I like to think some of it is true♥️. Ciao, Cristina
Thanks for this.
In elementary school, Mrs. Mills taught us about St. Valentine. It’s interesting because, as the day approached this year, I found myself remembering this, but only in part. I knew he existed and I knew he was a saint, and also that he was in prison, but (being a saint/priest) was confused re: his association with a day set aside for “inamorati”. Thank you for filling in the gaps.
Two things about the post though – you said that, at the beginning, that people either love VDay or think it’s just a hallmark holiday. You neglected a large third group – people who hate it/find it horribly depressing. Maybe things are different back home? Here there are “anti” VDay parties, among other things. It’s all sort of tongue in cheek – no one takes it seriously. But it does point out how difficult love can be – either to find or to keep.
Another thing that amazed me was that St. V is the patron saint of THE PLAGUE (!) How can someone be a patron of a plague? I could understand being a patron saint of curing the plague but of the plague itself? Lucky he was dead before he knew about that one, hahaha!
Actually, that brings up an interesting question. Who choses what things a person is patron saint of? And how are these decisions made? Time for another blog!
I hope you are well. Speaking of love, how are things with Franco? I hope he’s doing OK and that things are being sorted out re: his mother. Such difficult circumstances for all involved.
Things are more or less the same here, with one big difference. Spring appears to have arrived. The morning chorus of birds has begun, daffodils are pushing up, and witch hazel shrubs are blazingly yellow. It’s wonderful to see these changes. I imagine spring arrived back home weeks ago. People here are always amazed when I tell them how mild things are in Vancouver. “But it’s Canada” they protest. Sigh.
Hi Laura. Some of your comments made me laugh. I put the VD haters in as extremists with the 2nd group. When they say he is patron saint of the plague, it would be for protection against it. I’m not sure why but at some point in history someone must have prayed to him and not gotten the plague. That is my best guess! San Giuseppe is patron saint of carpenters and fathers because he was known for both of those. He is also PS of the homeless but I don’t know why? There are some very obscure ones (like PS of lost causes and clowns) that I don’t know if I even want to know why! Spring tried to arrive last month, then it snowed a few weeks ago. It is just starting to seem springy and the crocuses are out! Yeah! Ciao, Cristina
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