Who was the real St. Valentine? Surprising facts about the Patron Saint of happy marriages
Valentine’s Day has become one of the most popular and commercialized holidays of the year, but why do we celebrate it? And who was St. Valentine?
Conspiracy theorists will tell you that Valentine’s is a date created by big corporations to make people spend money on a day that is not based on a real person or events. The amount of money made in the name of this holiday cannot be denied, but the truth about the celebration’s roots is not very clear.
St. Valentine has been mentioned and portrayed by many institutions and people throughout history in differing ways. There is a story that claims that St. Valentine was a pope, and that he supposedly held the position for only 40 days.
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Who was the real St. Valentine? And how did he die?
Regardless of conspiracies or other stories, most historians seem to believe that St. Valentine might have been one of two people. In one interpretation, the church claims he was the Bishop of Terni; on another, he could have been a temple priest killed for marrying people without the permission of Rome. One thing historians could agree on is that Emperor Claudius II ordered his beheading in the outskirts of Rome.
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What are some cool facts about St. Valentine?
- The skull of the saint can be found in Rome. Bones and other relics now identified with St. Valentine were discovered in a catacomb near Rome in the early 1800s. St. Valentine’s flower-covered skull can be seen in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.
- About a dozen saints with the name Valentine appear on the Roman Catholic Church’s canonization list. St. Valentine Berrio-Ochoa, a Dominican priest from Spain who made his way to Vietnam, is the most recently canonized person with this name. Before his execution in 1861, he served as a bishop. Pope John Paul II canonized Berrio-Ochoa in 1988.
- The feast of Lupercalia may serve as the basis for the date when we celebrate Valentine’s. The Romans celebrated the festival on February 15 with drinking, excessive sex and orgies, and animal sacrifices.
- Those who follow St. Valentine seek his blessings in times of crisis, such as the arrival of plagues, fainting, and travel, as well for beekeeping and epilepsy.
Regardless of who the real St. Valentine was, this date is not going anywhere soon. And yes, it definitely has to do with corporations making a lot of money on this particular day.
February 14 is a mammoth money-making machine. The National Retail Federation estimates that more than half of Americans plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, with a total of $25.8 billion projected to be spent on the holiday in 2024.