Valentine: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Valentine was bishop of Interamna, the town now called Terni in Umbria, Italy, in the third century, and God gave him the gift of healing the sick. He cured the brother of a Roman tribune named Frontanus, and on Frontanus’ advice the philosopher Craton asked the bishop to come to Rome for his son Cherimon, whose spine was so bent that his head was drawn down to his knees. Valentine shut himself in with the boy and prayed through the whole night, and in the morning he brought him out healed and gave him back to his father. Craton was baptized with his whole household, and his students Proculus, Ephebus and Apollonius, young men from Athens, became the bishop’s devoted disciples; Abundius, the son of the city’s prefect, also confessed Christ. The authorities demanded that Valentine deny Christ and worship idols. He refused, was tortured and imprisoned, and was then beheaded, around the year 273. His disciples buried him along the Via Flaminia and were soon beheaded themselves; Abundius laid them near their teacher’s grave, where the basilica of San Valentino in Terni now stands. The Church remembers him on 30 July (12 August on the Old Calendar). The West keeps a St Valentine on 14 February, and the two are often taken for one man. Remembering how he prayed through the night for a sick boy, the faithful ask his prayers for the sick and for sick children, and for whole households to come to faith in Christ.

What the faithful pray for

• the sick, especially sick children
• parents who watch over an ailing child
• whole families to come to faith in Christ
• courage to confess Christ under pressure