All that is reliably known about the Saint is his name and that he was martyred and buried at a cemetery north of Rome, on the Via Flaminia, close to the Milvian bridge, on February 14th. A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire.
According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell. Whether or not this is true cannot be known seventeen centuries later. What is certain is that St. Valentine has been associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of courtly love.
What is more important is that he was martyred for his belief in the One True Faith. That is why the heart associated with holiday, and with love, is red -- the red blood of the heart of the Holy Martyr.
The good father(s) who write the Traditio blog note that the modern Roman Catholic Church has deleted from its liturgical calendar not only St. Valentine, but also St. Christopher, St. Blaise, St. George, St. Barbara, St. Catherine, and 200 other Saints who had been venerated in the Church for some two millennia. Curiously, the Anglican and Lutheran sects, as well as our separated Orthodox brethren, still venerate Valentine as a Saint.
And that, dear readers, is what St. Valentine's Day is all about.
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