Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.
A Valentine's card, c. 1909
Saint Valentine
Shrine of St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland
St Valentine baptizing St Lucilla, Jacopo Bassano.
Saint Valentine was a 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14 and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6. From the High Middle Ages, his feast day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love. He is also a patron saint of Terni, epilepsy and beekeepers.
Saint Valentine was a clergyman – either a priest or a bishop – in the Roman Empire who ministered to persecuted Christians. He was martyred and his body buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14, which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine since at least the eighth century.
Saint Valentine healing epilepsy, illustrated by Dr. František Ehrmann, circa 1899.
Saint Valentine of Terni oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni, from a 14th-century French manuscript (BN, Mss fr. 185)
Saint Valentine is said to have ministered to the faithful amidst the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
St Valentine Kneeling in Supplication (David Teniers III, 1600s) – Valentine kneels to receive a rosary from the Virgin Mary
