When he was Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius Claudius (214-270) decided to forbid soldiers to marry – he understood that a warrior without family ties was more fearless, because he was less afraid of risking his life.
It is said that a bishop named Valentim, because he believed in love, continued to celebrate marital bonds between the military, thus disrespecting the imperial decree.
There are also reports of a religious named Valentim who distributed roses in the streets. And narratives that say that there was a Valentine who cut parchment hearts and gave them to soldiers, so that they would look at such cards and remember their loved ones.
Or even the story that a priest Valentine contradicted the plans of influential family members and, recognizing that there was genuine feeling, accepted to formalize the union between a young Christian and his pagan bride.
In the records of Catholic saints, there are eleven named Valentine. And at least three of them —as pointed out by hagiographies scholar Thiago Maerki, a researcher at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and an associate of the Hagiography Society, in the United States— star in reports with messages of love.
“These three characters are often confused, mixed up”, he stresses. “The Valentine that the Church celebrates, the Valentine of Rome, has more to do with the story of a doctor who became a priest and, contrary to the Emperor’s law, continued to carry out weddings between soldiers.”
“But his very existence is discussed,” he points out.
If it is difficult to delimit where one Valentine begins, where another ends, it is even more difficult to prove what actually happened and what is nothing more than a legend built over the centuries.
And, as the figure celebrated by Catholicism on February 14 is so rich in controversies, given the impossibility of confirming what is fact and what is myth, the Catholic Church itself saw fit to remove him from the traditional liturgical calendar, even in the 1960s, after the Second Vatican Council.
Masses in his honor ended up being held only in communities where tradition is strong.
creation of the myth
In the official documents of the Church, the information is succinct and does not allow to differentiate one Valentine from the other.
The Roman Martyrology, where the biographies of the saints are, is succinct. On February 14, Saint Valentine is mentioned, followed by a brief explanation that he was martyred “in Rome, in Vila Flaminia, next to the Milvian bridge”. Nothing more.
“The missal before the Second Vatican Council also does not provide details, but indicates that Valentine was a priest and martyr, and that his martyrdom took place around the year 270”, says researcher and scholar of the life of saints José Luís Lira, founder of the Academy. Brazilian of Hagiology and professor at the State University of Vale do Aracaú, Ceará.
He explains that what defined the imagery about Saint Valentine ended up being “oral and written literature”.
“Legends are being created around them, as was the custom of these early Christians. The voice of the people was the one that celebrated their saints. And these cults, popular traditions, gained strength in the Middle Ages. Until what was not official ends up being recognized by the Church, which has no choice but to assume the tradition as official”, comments Maerki.
In the midst of so many contradictions, the common thread of what may have been the real Valentine is the information that ends up being confirmed by different sources. So, it is possible to place the saint of love as someone who lived in Rome in the third century of the present era.
It clashes with the government of Emperor Claudius. It is also consistent with the existence of the Milvio bridge, over the Tiber River, mentioned in the Martyrology.
“She is from about the year 207”, emphasizes Lira. “She is mentioned in the course of the Second Punic War, on the occasion of the return of the Battle of Metaurus.”
It also makes sense to believe that he was martyred, as this fate was common to prominent Christians of his day, when Rome saw such a group as a threat to order.
The date of February 14 as the date of his death is possibly a late invention. A convenient invention, by the way, in a process imposed by the Church, when it became an official religion, from the 4th century onwards, with the aim of systematically absorbing and re-signifying pagan practices.
“Even with Christianity already official, in the beginning the rituals today called pagan, of the Romans, coexisted with Christianity. Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and deputy director of the Lay Center in Rome.
Was Pagan, Became Christian, Now Secular
“The Church at that time gradually created festivals, memories and practices to suppress even pagan practices. Temples became churches, and rituals began to be re-signified”, he adds.
That’s why in the year 496, Pope Gelasius I (410-196) established that Saint Valentine should be celebrated on February 14th. The idea was not by chance.
During this period, about a month before the onset of spring in the northern hemisphere, Ancient Rome had a festival called Lupercalia, a fertility ritual.
“It was a time when people got together intimately, sexually, as a religious ritual. The period also indicated the beginning of planting, and they asked for a blessing from the gods so that it was a fertile year, with a lot of production”, contextualizes Domingues.
The pope wanted to frame what already existed within Christian morality. “He wanted to put an end to it and then he needed to create a Christian identity for the ritual. He placed Saint Valentine as the patron of lovers, of couples”, points out the Vaticanist.
“The Church did not completely abandon existing practices, but aligned them, tried to put a Christian justification to the rites and social relations that were typically pagan.”
In this sense, Domingues comments that Valentim’s choice may have been random. “There’s no reason as far as we know,” she stresses. And legends full of love stories may have been created later.
“It was at that moment that the memory of Saint Valentine began to be associated with the idea of a saint of love, of a patron saint of lovers. “, says Maerki.
“The Church instituted Saint Valentine by encouraging a Christian response to an ancient tradition”, summarizes historian Denise Wanderley Paes de Barros, a professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University.
The date is seen in this way in much of the world and explored by merchants and restaurant owners. “Interestingly, what was born as a pagan festival and was later absorbed by Christianity, today has become a secular celebration again”, analyzes Domingues. “The saint’s name is used, but it is no longer a Christian feast.”
Valentine’s Day
In Brazil, Valentine’s Day didn’t catch on. According to Lira, the main fault lies with another saint, Saint Anthony (1191-1231). Considered the most popular saint in Brazil, he has a reputation as a matchmaker.
“From a very early age, devotion to him was brought by the Franciscans to Brazil”, comments the hagiologist.
“As his story says that he used to help brides who didn’t have a dowry to get it so they could get married, he ended up instituting the eve of his day, June 12, as Valentine’s Day. matchmaking saint would also make him the patron saint of lovers.”
As a marketing ploy, of course. In the late 1940s, publicist João Doria (1919-2000), father of the current governor of São Paulo, his namesake, created a campaign for a store with this idea and the date ended up becoming a success.
And why did the Church stop celebrating Saint Valentine? Well, first it is necessary to emphasize that the message of the “saint of love”, whether he existed or not, was not abolished by Christianity.
In 2014, Pope Francis brought together 20,000 couples from 25 different countries in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the date, emphasizing the importance of “commitment in marriage”.
“It was an effort by Francis to restore a religious sense to the festivities”, comments Maerki.
In Rome, the idea of celebrating Saint Valentine is strong, so much so that on the bridge where he is believed to have been martyred, it was customary for lovers to close a padlock on the pole and throw the keys into the waters of the river.
“The excess weight of the padlocks on the pole caused, in 2007, an electrical breakdown, which later forced the tradition to end five years later”, says Lira.
In doubt, Church reduced its importance
What happened is that most likely the entire biographical construction of Valentim —or the set of Valentins — was filled with fiction.
And since the Second Vatican Council, there was an effort by the Church “to eliminate the memory of saints who would have a possibly legendary origin, that is, who were nothing more than a mythological construction”, explains Maerki.
“During the Council, the need to confirm the existence of certain saints was discussed”, emphasizes Lira.
“As a result, some had the mandatory celebration converted into optional. São Paulo 4th (1897-1978), Pope, in 1969, reformed the calendar for the celebration of saints and the memory of Saint Valentine became optional.”
“This was mainly due to the existence of more than one Valentine in the martyrology and without many details regarding their existence. The minutes of the martyrdom were in charge of each Church, which was not possible to give full veracity to the data”, adds the hagiologist. “A long time later, there was a concern with greater criteria for declaring oneself a Christian saint.”
Maerki comments that it is “very difficult to say that Saint Valentine didn’t exist” simply because “as a memory, at least, he existed and exists, since until today he is celebrated by many groups within the Church”.
Paes de Barros adds that, at that moment, “the Catholic Church realized that all of them [os Valentins] they lacked historical value.” When analyzing the available documentation and accounts, historical discrepancies and coincidences were noted in figures buried in different places, for example.
But if graves of saints end up being points of religious pilgrimage, there are at least three important places in Italy when you think of Saint Valentine.
In Rome, the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin keeps in a reliquary a skull attributed to Saint Valentine. The corresponding remains are in the Basilica of Saint Valentine, in the city of Terni — one of the historical figures who would become Saint Valentine was bishop of Interamna, today Terni, in Umbria.
Also in Italy, the Church of Saint George, in Monselice, in the province of Padua, has a tomb with mortal remains attributed to another of the Valentins.
Specialist in the facial reconstruction of saints and other ancient personalities, Brazilian designer Cícero Moraes recreated both Valentins in 3D, from images of their well-preserved skulls.
