Valentines and martyrdom

In February many will celebrate St Valentine’s Day with gifts of flowers and maybe chocolates to their loved ones.

The association of romantic love with St Valentine’s Day dates back to Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, but the actual figure after which this saint’s day is named comes from the early centuries of the Church. Details of his life are shrouded in the mists of history. Indeed, it may well be that there are actually two different Christian figures by the name of Valentine. Whether one or two, there is good evidence that the church remembered one of them as an early Christian martyr. Our Saint Valentine was an Italian bishop who was martyred on 14 February, 269, after a trial before the Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus (reign 268–270).

Our word “martyr” is derived from the Greek word martys, originally a legal term that was used of a witness in a court of law. Such a person was one who had direct knowledge or experience of certain persons, events, or circumstances and was therefore in a position to give evidence. In the New Testament the term and its cognates are frequently applied to Christians, who bear witness to Christ, often in real courts of law, when His claims are disputed and their fidelity is tested by persecution.