Online Encyclopedia

VALENTINE, or VALENTINUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 851 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VALENTINE, or
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VALENTINUS
  , the name of a considerable number of saints . The most celebrated are the two martyrs whose festivals fall on the 14th of February—the one, a
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Roman priest, the other, bishop of Terni (Interamna) . The Passion of the former is
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part of the legend of SS . Marius and Martha and their companions; that of the latter has no better
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historical foundation: so that no
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argument can be
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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 (Gothicus); that both died on the same day; and that both were buried on the Via
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Flaminia, but at different distances from Rome . The Marlyrologium Hieronymianum mentions only one
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Valentinus: " Interamnae miliario LXIIII. via Flaminia natale Valentini." It is probable that the
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basilica situated at the second milestone on the Via Flaminia was also dedicated to him . It is impossible to fix the date of his
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death . The St Valentinus who is spoken of as the apostle of Rhaetia, and venerated in
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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
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peculiar observances that used to be commonly connected with St Valentine's
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Eve and Day, to which allusion is frequently made by
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English writers, such
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works as John Brand's Popular Antiquities (edited by W . C . Hazlitt, vol. ii. pp .

6o6-r 1,

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London, 1905), W . Hone's Every-Day
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Book, and Chambers's Book of Days may be consulted . Their appropriateness to the spring 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,
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February, ii . 753, 756, and
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January, i . I094; G . B. de Rossi, Bullettino di archeologia cristiana (1871), p. lot and (1878) p . 59 . (H .

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