Saint Valentine

Today is Saint Valentine’s Day, and the first thing to know is that, historically, we know very little about him. The oldest mention is in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, a Church document from the fifth or sixth century: it gives his name, the city where he was buried and the day he died, February 14. Nothing else. He was bishop of Terni and died in Rome in 273. A sixth-century *Passio* adds a few details: the torture, the beheading carried out at night and in secret, and the burial at Terni by his disciples Proculus, Ephebus and Apollonius — who were themselves killed soon afterward and buried in the same city. The Passio has a scene that explains why he was called to Rome. The great Greek philosopher Crato ran a school in the city attended by the sons of the senatorial aristocracy, and he had a son, Cheremon, stricken with a very serious neurological illness. Someone suggested he send for the bishop of Terni, because Valentine had already cured a person with that same rare illness. Crato had him brought. That is one of the reasons why Valentine, besides being the patron of lovers, is also the protector of people with epilepsy. It should be said that for centuries his story was tangled up with that of another martyr, a Roman priest, in an account full of dates that don’t add up: two different figures merged into one by popular devotion. If your name is Valentine or Valentina, today is your name day — and in Italy these names are hugely popular right now. What remains of him is a name, a date, and half the world leaning on them. That’s not bad for a third-century bishop.