VALENTINE, or VALENTINUS

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 851 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: TUM-VAN

VALENTINE, or VALENTINUS , the name of a considerable number of saints. The most celebrated are the two martyrs whose festivals fall on the 14th of Februarythe one, a Roman
priest, the other,

bishop

of Terni (Interamna). The Passion of the former is

part

PART

of the legend of SS. Marius and Martha and their companions; that of the latter has no better historical foundation: so that no argument can be

drawn

DRAWN

from either account to establish the differentiation of the two saints. It would appear from the two accounts that both belonged to the same period, i.e. to the reign of the emperor

Claudius

CLAUDIUS
CLAUDIUS [TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO GERMANICUS]
CLAUDIUS, MARCUS AURELIUS
CLAUDIUS,
MATTHIAS
- MATTHIAS
- MATTHIAS (1557-1619)
(174o-1815)

(Gothicus); that both died on the same day; and that both were buried on the Via Flaminia, but at different distances from Rome. The Marlyrologium Hieronymianum mentions only one Valentinus: " Interamnae miliario LXIIII. via Flaminia natale Valentini." It is probable that the basilica situated at the second milestone on the Via Flaminia was also dedicated to him. It is impossible to fix the date of his death. The St Valentinus who is spoken of as the apostle of Rhaetia, and venerated in Passau as its first

bishop

, flourished in the 5th century. Although the name of St Valentine is very popular in England, apparently no

church

has been dedicated to him. For the peculiar observances that used to be commonly connected with St Valentine's Eve and Day, to which allusion is frequently made by English writers, such works as John Brand's Popular Antiquities (edited by W. C. Hazlitt, vol. ii. pp. 6o6-r 1, London, 1905), W. Hone's Every-Day Book, and Chambers's Book of Days may be consulted. Their appropriateness to the

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger.
springer
- SPRINGER (Fr. rein)
- SPRINGER, ANTON HEINRICH (1825–1891)
, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

season is, in a general way perhaps, obvious enough, but the association of the lovers' festival with St Valentine seems to be purely accidental.'
See Acta Sanctorum, February, ii. 753, 756, and January, i. I094; G. B. de Rossi, Bullettino di archeologia cristiana (1871), p. lot and (1878) p. 59. (H. DE.)

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