Who was Valentine's Day and why are we celebrating this day on February 14 – 14/02/2019

Although the Day of lovers It is celebrated all over the world in the honor of Valentine's DayThe figure of this saint is little known.

The Catholic Martyrology -species catalog of saints and martyrs- includes two characters with the name Valentin. "It is possible that it was the same saint who was taken from his city to Rome for martyrdom, which is suspected because, in addition to having the same name, both were beheaded on Via Flaminia and organize their feast on February 14, "they said from the Catholic press agency ACI Prensa.

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Valentine, a Roman priest who worked miracles

According to Catholic records, a Roman priest named Valentin lived during the reign of Emperor Claude Gothic (268-270). As Valentin was famous for his holiness, the emperor summoned him and tried to convert him to his polytheistic religion without success. He even entrusted the task to one of his trusted men, named Asterius.

But not only did Asterius fail in his faith but Valentin himself himself converted to Christianity, having found her daughter, blind since childhood, miraculously recovered her sight through the intercession of the priest.

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Aware of history, Claude II sent to behead Valentine on February 14 in Via Flaminia, near the place where he was later buried.

The bishop of Terni who healed the sick

The other version of Valentine's Day is located in the fourth century and presents it as the bishop of the Italian city of Terni. According to the Vatican News report, Crato, a very rich professor of Greek and Latin, would have offered the bishop half of his fortune to cure his son of a physical malformation. Reject money, the bishop prayed for the boy, who was thus healedand converted the whole family of Crato to Christianity. Again, the miracle unleashed the martyrdom of Valentin, executed on Via Flaminia.

Why the employer of lovers

According to Vatican News, the tradition of Valentine's Day as the patron saint of lovers has its origin in an old English text whose author, Geoffrey Chaucer, says that the birds begin to breed in mid-February and that the date coincides with the beginning of spring.

Other versions bring together other stories preserved by the oral tradition. One of them is that Emperor Claudius II had banned the celebration of marriages so that men were available for war. Defying this decree, it is said that Valentine was a priest who secretly married couples.

In 496, Pope Gelasius decided that every February 14th would celebrate Valentine's Day on the occasion of the anniversary of his martyrdom.

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