St. Valentine


It is un-Lutheran to ignore and disparage the faith and the fruits of faith of the saints. Martin Luther himself wrote: "Next to Holy Scripture there certainly is no more useful book for Christendom than that of the lives of the saints, especially when unadulterated and authentic. For in these stories one is greatly pleased to find how they sincerely believed God's Word, confessed it with their lips, praised it by their living, and honored and confirmed it by their suffering and dying. All this immeasurably comforts and strengthens those weak in the faith and increases the courage and confidence of those already strong far more than the teaching of Scripture alone, without any examples and stories of the saints."

At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February.

The first Valentine mentioned was a priest at Rome.

The next Valentine was bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).

These two suffered in the second half of the third century and were buried on the Flaminian Way at different distances from the city. What was known to the ancients as the Flaminian Gate of Rome is now the Porta del Popolo, but was once called the Gate of St. Valentine, although the name may have been taken from a small church dedicated to the saint in the immediate neighborhood.

The legend has a Valentine, in defiance to the emperor, performing marriages. The emperor forbade young men marrying since he wished to conscript them into the army.

A third Saint Valentine suffered in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing further is known.

Saint Valentine's Day

Popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day may have originated in a conventional belief in England and France during the Middle Ages that on 14 February (i.e. half way through the second month of the year) the birds began to pair. In Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read:

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

This may have led to the consecration of this day to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending tokens. French and English literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries allude to this practice. The earliest found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet, John Gower, written in French. Other examples are found in the writings of Lydgate and Clauvowe. In the Paston Letters, Dame Elizabeth Brews writes about "suiting" her daughter:

The copyright of the article St. Valentine in Lutheranism is owned by John L. Hoh, Jr.. Permission to republish St. Valentine in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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