Did St Valentine exist?

Valentine’s day comes with a sense of relief for middle-aged. At least you are not on tenterhooks about what might, or might not, come in the mail. Truth to tell, apart from welcome tokens of affection from the husband, I don’t think I have ever received a Valentine – of the traditional, unexpected, “wonder who it is” sort.

Nor for that matter have I ever sent one, so far as I can remember. Except years ago as a joke to a senior colleague, who was instantly convinced that it was from someone else. The less said about this the better.

None of which stops me being curious about the Roman history of all this. In fact, for all of you wondering if there was ever a real Saint Valentinus, the good news is that there was not just one, but three.

The bad news is that we know almost nothing reliable about him/them. Earnest and detailed articles about his true history (like the one in last Sunday’s Telegraph) have, I am afraid, fallen for some very unreliable parts of Valentine’s myth.

The "facts" are these.

There are three possible Valentines for our purposes (leaving out the tens of other saints also known by that name – a common one in the Roman empire):

A stray North African
A Bishop of Terni (in Italy)
A priest in Rome

So far Wiki is reliable, but then -- though it's actually better than most accounts -- it gets a bit dodgier.

The stray North African doesn’t actually get you very far. The second two were both supposed to have been martyred on 14 February, though not necessarily in the same year, and may indeed have been the same person (if they ever existed, that is).

We don’t have any contemporary accounts of the martyrdom of this pair (?one). But there is a sixth or seventh century version which gives them their separate stories. Here the Roman Valentine is said to have been martyred under the emperor Claudius – Claudius Gothicus (268-70). Only trouble is that Claudius Gothicus was a tolerator of Christians, and was hardly in Rome to persecute Christians anyway. The other Valentine, of Terni, may have been martyred in the 270s (no firm date is given), but his story and miracles are not unlike his Roman namesake – more reason for wondering if they are the same.  No sign, in either case, of being a patron saint of lovers.

According to the most rigorous modern scholar of our saint (Jack B. Oruch, who wrote a famous article on the subject in Speculum for 1981), that particular element was not actually invented until Chaucer – who was looking for a lovers’ saint to mark the start of spring (February, start of spring before global warming? Well it was helped, apparently, by the calendar being out of synch with the seasons in the fourteenth century.)

But there is another ingenious twist, which appeals to me – although it is, almost certainly, quite wrong. One smart scholar of the eighteenth century shrewdly asked what the pagan Romans would have been doing on 14 February. Answer: in Rome itself, they were in the middle of the weird festival of the Lupercalia (in which naked young men raced round the city, beating with thongs any woman lucky enough to get in their way). One thing we know is that in the late fifth century AD Pope Gelasius was angry to find his flock still enjoying this pagan festival, when they should have been being good Christians. So what does he do? He invents St Valentine’s day, to give his wayward people a fun, but Christian, festival to replace the Lupercalia.

Lovely idea, but not a shred of evidence.

Comments

[Xjy]

For a nice early mediaeval Latin romp on (inter alia) heresies and such, check out the "execrable" Bede's egregious history of England. A laugh a page. A hatchetman of the first order, a Northumbrian Stalinist branding the Celts for their false reckoning of the days of movable feasts and toting up gorgeous palliums bestowed (interesting Wiki thing on p's). Funniest bit for me (apart from some of the miracles) is the battle reporting re Welsh monks against Saxon warriors.

[Tony Francis]

The relevant sections of Summa Theologica concerning the Arian question is:
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1027.htm
All of Summa Theologica in English is found on the site given supra.
A highly abridged version of Summa Contra Gentiles, concerning the Arian question, in English is (look at Book 4):
http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/gc.htm
The whole text in Latin is (start at Chapter 3):
http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/scg4001.html
The works of Aquinas in Latin are found on this last site, including Summa Theologica.

[Tony Francis]

Friend Anthony A: As always, you are correct. The "Diphthong" episode did involve the Arian heresy. This is what I get for relying on my memory and not looking at the facts of the situation before writing about it. To be honest, "diphthong' is not a word I use very much. A "dipthong", as you describe it sounds like something I would do better to avoid. I don't say this as an excuse, but as an explanation.
The theological questions posed by these disputes are much larger than an argument over semantics. One reference gives the words: "homoousion" which was later translated into English as "consubstantial", meaning God the Father and Christ were "of one substance with"; as opposed to the Arian "homoiousion", meaning "of similar or like substance". The idea of Arius was that God the Father must be older in time than the Son. Hence the Son could not be eternal with the Father. This is, of course, no small theological matter. Despite the Council of Nicea, the issue continued to hang around. Aquinas wrote extensively about the Arians, first in Summa Contra Gentiles, then in Summa Theologica. In the former, Book Four, Chapter 3 deals with the question of whether the Son of God is God; Chapter 4 refutes the opinion of Photinus; Chapter 5, Sabellius; Chapters 6-8 on Arius. In the end, Aquinas concludes that the question of Divine Generation can be comprehended only in part, but is beyond human understanding. The issue is dealt with in more abbreviated form in Summa Theologica in Part 1, Q. 27 Art 1-5. Aquinas attributes Arianism to Origen.
Nestorius held that the Man Christ and the God Christ to be two separate entities. Cyril of Alexandria held that Christ the Man and Christ the God to be the same. Once again, not a small difference. Whether this is of Egyptian origin is an interesting question. The issue keeps coming up: The idea that Akhenaten's one god was influenced by the Hebrews, or maybe the Hebrews were influenced by Akhenaten. There are arguments for each side. But who knows? Some of the Psalms are remarkably similar to Egyptian prayers. And of course, the whole idea of ascetic isolation is Egyptian. I know that the Egyptian written language frequently used symbols with more than one meaning. So the concept of a physical world in close association with a spiritual world was not foreign to the Egyptian mind. Aquinas utlizes Greek philosophic techniques (Aristotle) to resolve these questions. Whether this a "real" Greek philosophy, or an artiface of Aquinas' is an old question which has no real answer. Nestorius appears to have been very influential in Mohammed's and hence the Quran's depiction of Christianity, which is of some modern importance.
Thanks for the Syriac words kyana and qenoma. I had never heard these.

[anthony alcock]

Mr Francis. The diphthong (your typing error "dipthong" sounds like an interesting sex toy) problem goes back to an earlier dispute involving Athanasius and Arius (homos-homoios). The preposition problem of Ephesus (431)-Chalcedon (451) (with the disgraceful Latrocinium (449) interlude), "in" and "of", was also connected with quite confusing problems of terminology: physis, hypostasis, ousia, prosôpon. The first two seem to become even more jumbled up in Syriac (kyana=physis and qenoma=hypostasis) by changing places, but that is another story. It has always seemed to me that Cyril's Egyptian background may have played a considerable role in his thinking. The idea of divine incarnation had been an explicit part of Egyptian thought about the relationship between God and man from the time of Hatshepsut, in whose mortuary temple at Deir el Bahri the story of the divine birth is recorded in writing and pictures for the first time. The combination of the human and the divine never seems to have been much of a problem for Egyptians. It all seems to be another expression of the theology of Heliopolis, which was probably responsible in the 4th dynasty for the adoption into the royal titulary for the first time of the element "Son of Re".

[MacNara]

In Japan, the Valentine tradition is for girls to give chocolate to boys, and 'girichoco' (duty chocolate) is often given to male colleagues and teachers.

From when I started teaching in Japan, at a women's university, I got quite a lot of chocolate - even by express mail on a couple of occasions, when Valentine's Day was in the Spring holidays.

Then the chocolate petered out, until by around the age of 35, it had almost ceased.

And then one student turned up with chocolate in May. I said, "That's nice, but it's not my birthday, you know." "No," she said, "It's Father's Day on Sunday."

Feeling a little down (I was still single, after all, and not in such bad condition), I reported the exchange to my head of department.

His reply: "What's so bad about Father's Day. I get chocolate on September 15th."

September 15th: Respect for the Aged Day here in Japan!

[Tony Francis]

Friend Anthony A would appear to have it correctly. The record indicates Cyril of Alexandria plundered the Novatian churches, and expelled at least some factions of Jews.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11138a.htm
The theological argument revolved around the true nature of Christ: was He "of two natures" or "in two natures"? The Nestorians were of the latter opinion. The issue was resolved at the Council of Chalcedon. It was said the whole of Christendom hung on the fate of a dipthong.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03555a.htm
Concerning the historian Socrates: it is probable he was a lawyer. I don't say this to build him up, nor tear him down in your estimation:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14118b.htm
This whole Alexandrian episode is markedly distateful to our modern sensibilities.
Speaking of distasteful episodes, I must relate my recent battles with Wiki. A roving editor, hiding behind a pseudonym has directed that my article about Aquinas and the Sacraments be deleted. I told him his ideas were worthy of a high school student. He promptly filed a complaint against me with the administration, claiming I had attacked him personally. (An act reminiscent of a grade school student tattling to the principal.)
I have informed them I will never write or contribute to any articles in Wiki again. Wiki, for the most part is good. But the constant battles with certain roving editors who view their role as being either a death star or a cosmic black hole, destroying everything in their path is just too much. In my opinion, some of these are not only ignorant and stupid, they are malignantly ignorant, and aggressively stupid. I write advisory reports for US federal judges in the 8th, 9th and 10th circuits - ten to twenty a week. But I can't write up to Wiki's rigorous standards. This from the same organization that boasts articles on "Where Playboy Bunnies were Born" and "Paris Hilton". Just something to keep in mind when using Wiki.

[Clive Caplan]

Is it not true that Roman holidays were on odd days (fas) and that even days were "nefas"? Hence St Patrick's day on March 17th - Feast of Bacchus - and St George's day on April 23. This would make christian cooptation of Feb 14 unlikely.

[anthony alcock]

Fascinating titbits about the home life of our own dear Regina Temporum.
Cyril seems to have been a fairly unscrupulous ecclesiastical politician, who was very probably deeply engaged in a power struggle with the Prefect of the city, Orestes. Hypatia, who seems to have been friendly with Orestes, may have got in the way. Kingsley's account may not be so far from the truth, assuming of course that there is such a thing. Socrates, in his Church History, accuses Cyril of plundering the Novatian churches and expelling the Jews from Alexandria. Cyril certainly seems to have had a fairly shrewd idea of how to control the hairy hooligans who inhabited the desert in various parts of Egypt.

[Tony Francis]

The History Channel has a 5 minute video giving the old stories about Valentine's Day. It is done with their usual flair. It may take a minute to load the video:
http://www.history.com/minisites/valentine/
Under the section on famous couples, they have a matching test. They paired me up with Katie Couric. I wasn't satisfied with this, so I took it again. This time they matched me with Rosie O'Donnell. I think I'll pass on both these. Anyone know CNN Betty Nguyen's phone number?

[Delle Jacobs]

When I mention being born on Feb. 13, invariably someone says, "oh, the day before Valentine's Day", as if that is somehow special. I tell them it was a Friday, and they shut up.

We have a culture grounded in mythology, and most of us accept that as a part of our past. But we like our old customs which we have re-invented to meet our modern needs, and that's fine with me.

[abc]

I suspect that somehow became a question of judgment which took quite a while.

[Tony Francis]

Friend Arindam B.: There is no reason for you to be shocked. Sts. Cyril and Methodius are celebrated in the Latin calendar on February 14. These lived several centuries after the death of Hypatia.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04592a.htm
The St. Cyril you are fretting about is St. Cyril of Alexandria. His feast day in the Latin calendar is June 27. (The Catholic Encyclopedia incorrectly reports his feast day as January 28, which is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas):
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04592b.htm
St. Cyril of Alexandria is noted for fighting the Nestoiran heresy. Mohammed formed his ideas about Christianity based on his contact with Nestorianism in Syria. It is true that there was conflict of various factions in Alexandria that led to many deaths. Some sections of Jews were killed or expelled. But then. some Jews had killed various Christian sects. It is also true that a Christian mob killed Hypatia.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_of_Alexandria
It is in dispute whether this can be attributed to St. Cyril of Alexandria. A pagan philosopher named Damascius blamed Cyril. But others have called his accusation spurious.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_of_Alexandria
I know Carl Sagan, in his series "Cosmos", stated as fact that Cyril of Alexandria was directly responsible for the death of Hypatia. Carl Sagan was an atheist who believed all the problems in the world are caused by religion. So he was biased, and let his bias come through in that particular script. You are free to believe which ever version your bias leads you, or simply accept it as one of those events that can never be known.

[Xjy]

Interesting light on how seriously this custom was taken in 17th century England in Pepys Diary (http://www.pepysdiary.com/) - check out "valentine" in the site encyclopedia or just search for individual mentions.
In the early Restoration it was quite a social thing to be paired off with a Valentine, and you had to hope for a compatible one...

[Mary]

OK Simone..fair point, a naughty tease. I'm not going to give you his name (de mortuis..), but I slipped a Valentine card into his pigeonhole, with an anonymous message coded in the technical vocabulary of a Part II course he was teaching at the time (ok -- sad, I agree).
When I bumped into later that day he had received the card and already "knew" exactly who had sent it. So fixed was his certainty that after 5 minutes of this I didnt have the nerve to confess...and judge played along. Never again, thought I.

But an update on the Beard Valentine's day.. yes a bunch of wonderful red roses were hand delivered, unanonymously. A joy to the heart!!

[Simone]

"Nor for that matter have I ever sent one, so far as I can remember. Except years ago as a joke to a senior colleague, who was instantly convinced that it was from someone else. The less said about this the better."
Oh, no, you can't go throwing out hints like this and then clam up!
Go on then, spill it ;-)

[arindam bandyopadhaya]

I am shocked on reading David Kirwan's post that the Roman calendar still has a feast of St. Cyril. Wasn't he the bishop of Alexandria who had Hypatia murdered so tragically?

Regards

[alcock]

I would like to think that Valentine was the gnostic thinker of the 2nd cent. AD responsible for the Sophia myth recounted in a couple of Nag Hammadi texts. Sophia, an outer aeon, "fell" and was responsible for the creation of the material (hylic) world, but was ultimately restored to her former status by her syzygy, Christ, who gave the hylic world a fighting chance of survival. Basically, a boy meets girl story.

[Tony Francis]

Perhaps the most famous saint of questioned status is St. Christopher ("The Christ-Bearer"). He was especially popular with the Germans, and everyone in the 1940s and 1950s had a metal in their car showing St. Cristopher bearing the Christ Child. Nothing about him could really be substantiated, so he lost quite a bit of standing after the 1960s.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03728a.htm

[Tony Francis]

It would seem that St. George, the patron saint of England is a co-opted pagan. That is to say, there may have been a St. George, but the legend was probably taken from pagan sources. St. George and the Dragon may have been an invention from about the time of Chaucer/St.Valentine's Day.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06453a.htm
St. George's Day was a holy day of obligation for the Catholic Church in England into the 18th century.

[daphne sayed]

i'm amazed that anyone sends Valentines they've become so expensive.when I was teaching I received anonymous cards and was probably relieved not to know which pimply youth or lass sent them.
the Church was very good at converting pagan feasts into Christian ones. I'm reading Hans Kung's History of the Catholic Church during the Homiliy on Sundays
and been very interested in such pragmatism.

[Tony Francis]

Jack B. Oruch, University of Kansas, has based his argument that Chaucer "invented" St. Valentine's day on the theory that the first mention of St. Valentine's Day and its connection with romantic love is in "Canterbury Tales". According to some, it is also mentioned in Chaucer's "Legend of Good Women".
http://omacl.org/GoodWomen/
Yet we know that William of Malmesbury, who pre-dated Chaucer by several hundred years mentions the Flaminian Gate or the Porta del Popolo Gate as St. Valentine's Gate:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15254a.htm
This site also corroborates Jackie's assertion that the day is associated with the mating of birds. Considering the fact that the Hundred Years War was the catalyst for English usage (all previous writing being in either Latin or Norman French), is Oruch's conclusion justified?
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_years_war
Or was Chaucer merely writing down, in English, for the first time what had been a pre-existing cultural event?

[abc]

as a break, workimg from home, elusively vacant from college, despite my room in fac: i went in by train yesterday with a bloke who asked me out and he told me he was late into work because he had spent the morning with his wife and his brood. I was quiet and thought to myself "That's interesting. I am so glad you are happy and that you are late to work and telling me that your wife fucks a lot."

[Gladiatrix]

I don't quite understand the comment by Mary on February being the start of Spring. Chaucer was and is right. It is modern commentators, especially badly educated journalists, and even curators from Kew Gardens of all places who seem not to know when Spring begins. The Vernal Equinox on March 21st marks the middle of Spring not the beginning, therefore Spring DOES begin in February. Each equinox and solstice marks the middle of a season, this is the reason for the traditional names of the Winter and Summer Solstices: Midsummer's and Midwinter's Day respectively. It would be great if more people understood this, particularly the owners of e.g. Marks & Spencer as there might then be a chance for the rest of us to buy the right clothes of the right weight for the right time of year.

[Gray]

I couldn't give a toss who St Valentine was (or wasn't), I just know that being born on this day is a license for every know-it-all to inform me (as if I wasn't already convinced over the last 30 or so years) that 14th Feb is indeed St Valentine's day when giving one's date of birth.

[Delilah Marvelle]

Most Christian holy days began with an attempt to overthrow popular pagan rites. How else could they compete? Which is why, even without hard evidence, Valentine's Day is believed to have replaced one of the Roman rites. Bottom line, history is not always what it seems and never what it should be.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Delilah

[Jackie]

One reason given for St Valentine being the patron saint of lovers is that his saints day,(whoever he is) February 14, is supposed to be the day that birds choose their mates. Oddly enough I find this strangely comforting! It is based on nature, not the attributes of the saint himself, and therefore means we don't actually need to identify him.

[abc]

Had you been my director of studies at the time you would have gone ballistic.

[abc]

Actually I will not tell you about this, although I would tell you a lot.

[abc]

I sent a Valentine's card to a (then not) Cambridge chair once (you'll have to ask me about it). I was busy trying to take Pt I seriously, amidst illness, and didn't really need to start translating imagery of bondage. It was a risk but the risk worked and he soon shut up, without a necessary complaint to the relevant faculty board. He's done rather well considering and I'm sure we'd be great friends now, although my peer at the time judged the card a very bad idea.

[Mary]

I'm not sure whose bits ended up in Dublin...there are some more bits (not necessarily of the same V) in the south of England somewhere.
I think he/they were culled by the Catholic church in the late 1960s??

[David Kirwan]

I'm not sure which of the many Valentines it is, but what are claimed to be the bones of St Valentine are at present in the Carmelite church in Whitefriars Street, Dublin. An Irish Carmelite preacher so impressed Pope Greory XVI by his preaching when he visited Rome in 1836 that he was given a casket containing the saint's bones when he left to return to Ireland. Accompanying them was a papal certificate of authenticity. However, in the current Roman calendar February 14th is the feast of Sts Cyril and Methodius, apostles to the Slavs and supposed originators of the Cyrillic alphabet. Perhaps St Valentine has been silently disavowed.