Saint Valentine - Identification

Identification

In the Roman Catholic Church the name Valentinus does not yet occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. But it already can be found in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which was compiled, from earlier local sources, between 460 and 544. The feast of St. Valentine of February 14 was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among all those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implies, nothing was yet known to him about his life.

The Catholic Encyclopedia and other hagiographical sources speak of three Saint Valentines that appear in connection with Feb 14th. One was a Roman priest, another the bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) both buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different distances from the city. The third they say was a saint who suffered on the same day with a number of companions in the Roman province of Africa, for whom nothing else is known.

Though the extant accounts of the martyrdoms of the first two listed saints are of a late date and contain legendary elements, a common nucleus of fact may underlie the two accounts and they may refer to one single person.. According to the official biography of the Diocese of Terni, Bishop Valentine was born and lived in Interamna and was imprisoned and tortured in Rome on 14 February 273, while on a temporary stay there. His body was buried in a hurry at a nearby cemetery and a few nights later his disciples came and carried him home.

Τhe Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, for February 14 gives only one Saint Valentine; a martyr who died on the Via Flaminia.