Fr. Waldemar Turek – Vatican
According to traditional accounts, St. Valentine was born in Terni around 175 AD into a patrician family. He became bishop of his home diocese at the age of just over twenty. He served his community zealously and for a long time, and in his old age, he went to Rome to preach the Gospel and the need for conversion, even to Emperors Claudius II Gothicus and Aurelian, being arrested each time. This was still a period of persecution against Christians, especially those known and playing a special role in the Roman community. Valentine, with increasing popularity, was captured and beheaded on February 14, 273 AD, at the age of about 100, near Via Flaminia, on the outskirts of Rome.
From that moment, the figure of the Bishop of Terni became even more famous, but the oldest surviving evidence of his life and activity dates only from the 5th century. The martyr’s name was placed in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, considered the most important list (in calendar form) of Christian martyrs and saints of the ancient Latin West.
Patron of Lovers
In the meantime, various stories began to emerge around the saint’s life, his piety, kindness, and special charisma towards people in love. Numerous deeds were discovered and attributed to him, in which he was presented as a defender of true Christian love uniting fiancés and married couples. The story of the love between the Christian Serapia and the pagan Sabinus became very well known.
A young, beautiful girl lived in Terni, and a charming Roman centurion named Sabinus, often passing through the city, noticed her beauty and noble qualities, fell in love with her, and asked for her hand in marriage. Her relatives, however, were reluctant to consent to the marriage because Sabinus was a pagan, and her entire family belonged to the community of Christ’s disciples. Serapia suggested that he go to Bishop Valentine, undergo appropriate formation, and be baptized.
So it happened, but then an even greater obstacle appeared. It was discovered that Serapia was suffering from very advanced tuberculosis; the noble Roman legionary was deeply affected by this but had no intention of leaving her. Having summoned Bishop Valentine to the dying Serapia’s bedside, he begged the saint not to let him be separated from his beloved. Valentine raised his hands and prayed very fervently to Almighty God until a blissful sleep united the two hearts for eternity.
According to another story, Bishop Valentine once heard a quarrel between two young fiancés passing by his garden in Terni. He went out to meet them, holding a beautiful rose. The gray hair of the kind old man, his serene and smiling face, and the flower carried as a gift and a sign of love had a magical power to calm the quarreling lovers. Handing them the rose, he asked them to carefully grasp the stem together so as not to hurt themselves; as if he wanted to make them understand that true love also sometimes encounters thorns…
The situation of Christians in the Roman Empire changed significantly with the Edict of Milan issued in 313 AD. Persecutions ceased, but not various pagan festivals. Among them, the Lupercalia, celebrations in honor of the pagan god Lupercus, were loudly celebrated on February 15, completely clashing with Christian morality and the idea of love.
Considering the widespread cult of St. Valentine, as well as the need to promote the Christian concept of engagement, marriage, and love, Pope Gelasius established the commemoration of this saint in 496 AD, which replaced Lupercalia, on February 14, the anniversary of his martyrdom, thereby definitively confirming St. Valentine as the patron of lovers, as well as couples trying to conceive. The same pope celebrated Holy Mass for all fiancés who were to marry within the year, giving each couple a red rose, repeating the gesture that St. Valentine once showed to a couple experiencing difficulties.
Pilgrimages of Engaged Couples
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Basilica of St. Valentine, located about two kilometers from the center of Terni. Dedicated to the patron saint of the city and lovers, it was built on the burial site of the martyr, who, although beheaded in Rome, was brought to Terni at night by his disciples. A chapel was originally built over his tomb, which was later transformed into an early Christian basilica. The Neoclassical facade was completed only in 1854. The interior of the current temple is maintained in a subdued Baroque style, decorated with stucco.
The altars feature large 17th-century paintings, including works by Cavalier d’Arpino and Luca Polidori. Under the main altar, a glass display case with the reliquary of St. Valentine is visible. Thanks to the kindness of one of the Carmelite fathers serving here, we also descended to the crypt, which dates back to the church’s beginnings. Before a fragment of the relics, an inscription reads: “St. Valentine Patron of Love.” In the adjacent room, we saw a small lapidarium, which contains many stone tablets with ancient Latin inscriptions, found during various archaeological works carried out in the area.
The Indian Carmelite explained to us that thousands of faithful and pilgrims visit the basilica in Terni every year, including numerous engaged couples and young married couples, asking for the blessing of St. Valentine. The tradition of pilgrimages dates back to the early Middle Ages, a period in which the cult of Valentine gradually spread throughout Europe, also thanks to the Benedictines and due to calendar coincidence. The liturgical commemoration on February 14 falls at a time of year when, in southern Europe, nature begins to show the first signs of awakening from winter sleep and the sun begins to warm the earth. In this way, St. Valentine gradually heralded the approaching spring and was invoked to oversee the awakening of creation. At the same time, his intercession was invoked in some regions of Europe to alleviate epilepsy and neurological diseases. All this only developed the cult of the martyr from the first centuries, the guardian of lovers and those suffering from spiritual ailments.
It has survived to this day; moreover, one can speak of its renewal. God is Love, and every person is called to it, so on February 14, we can all, to some extent, treat it as our holiday. But it particularly concerns engaged couples, who come here in large numbers in mid-February, process before the relics of their patron, entrust their common life to him, and receive… red roses.
In our times, a monument depicting two elderly people in a gesture of affection and love that has stood the test of time has been erected in the small square in front of the temple; as if the artist wanted to say that true love does not fade and does not only concern young people. And on the branches of the trees growing in the same square, I noticed hundreds of red hearts with the names of lovers who came here from all over the world, asking for the intercession of St. Valentine for their new path in life…
