ON ST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR, AT ROME ON THE VIA FLAMINIA,
IN THE YEAR 269.
Preliminary Commentary.
Valentine, Priest and Martyr, at Rome (St.)
By G. H.
[1] The illustrious memory of St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr of Rome, is found in all the sacred calendars, Breviaries, and Missals. The memory of St. Valentine in the Martyrologies. The ancient Roman Martyrology published by Rosweyde reads: "At Rome, of Valentine the Priest"; in the Centula manuscript is added "and Martyr." Bede, Usuard, Ado in both printed and manuscript codices, Rabanus, Notker, Bellini, the manuscript Martyrologies of Tournai (St. Martin's), the Laetia, Utrecht (St. Mary's), St. Cyriacus, and others, report in nearly the same words: "On the 16th day before the Kalends of March, at Rome, the birthday of Blessed Valentine the Priest, who, after many remarkable deeds of healing and teaching, was beaten with clubs and then beheaded under the Emperor Claudius." But the Roman Martyrology begins: "At Rome, on the Via Flaminia, the birthday of Blessed Valentine, Priest and Martyr, who after many remarkable deeds," etc. Certain copies add that he was beheaded for the faith of Christ. In a few this clause is read: "And by SS. Marius and Martha and their sons he was reverently committed to burial." Indeed, since they were then confined in prison, he was buried by Savinella, a noble matron. Other eulogies drawn from the Acts are found in Maurolycus, Galesini, Ghini, and Canisius.
[2] The Life of St. Valentine is contained in the Acts of SS. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Acts drawn from the Life of SS. Marius, Martha, etc. which we published on the 19th of January from Boninus Mombritius and several ancient manuscripts, and which we judged to be most worthy of trust; nor do we know what Baronius found objectionable in them, at the year of Christ 270, number 8, where he reports other things, but drawn from these same Acts in abridged form -- which from him were published in the third edition of Surius at this 14th of February, the earlier Acts which Surius had published, though in an emended style, being eliminated. The deeds of St. Valentine alone are presented by the Utrecht manuscript of St. Saviour and the Roman manuscript of the Fathers of the Oratory. They are distributed into six Lessons recited at Matins, a division which we retain. They agree with what is reported in the ancient Breviaries of Spain, Gaul, and Germany, with which we give them collated. In most Breviaries the same Prayer is read which appears in the Roman Missal and Breviary, from the Sacramentary of St. Gregory. In some Breviaries he is venerated together with SS. Vitalis, Felicula, and Zeno, with the name of Valentine placed first in the Prayer which we gave above concerning them. These same Acts in abridged form have been published by Lippelous, Haraeus, Ferrarius, and others, and by all who have translated the Lives of the Saints into the vernacular languages.
[3] St. Valentine underwent martyrdom under Claudius II, who began to reign about the year of Christ 268, around the 9th day before the Kalends of April, and continued until the beginning of the year 270, Martyrdom in the year 269. so that his death must necessarily be assigned to the year 269, for Claudius was no longer alive in the month of February of the following year. The arena of this athlete was the Via Flaminia, which, as Strabo reports in Book 5, was paved and constructed from Rome through Etruria and Umbria all the way to Ariminum; outside the Flaminian Gate from it, the gate of the city of Rome, which was formerly called the Flumentana Gate on account of the river Tiber, was afterward named the Flaminian Gate. William of Malmesbury, who flourished in the twelfth century of Christ, reports in Book 4 of his History of the Kings of England, under William II, that in subsequent times it was called the Gate of St. Valentine; for while describing the gates of Rome, he writes: "The second gate is the Flaminian, which is now called St. Valentine's, and the Flaminian Way; which was afterward called the Gate of St. Valentine and when it reaches the Milvian Bridge, it is called the Ravenna Way, because it leads to Ravenna. There, at the first milestone outside the city, St. Valentine rests in his own Church." In our own age it is called the Porta del Popolo, now called the Porta del Popolo because it is worn by the more frequent concourse of people. This Via Flaminia, or Via of St. Valentine, a little beyond the first milestone from the city, is crossed by the river Tiber at the place where the Milvian Bridge and beyond the Milvian Bridge (called Molbius by William of Malmesbury; in the manuscript Acts of St. Leopardus, Martyr, on the 30th of September, Molinus; in Italian, Ponte Mole) is still to be seen.
[4] Beyond this bridge, at the first milestone, as has been said, St. Valentine was beheaded; his sepulchre and the Acts report that Savinella collected his body and buried him in the same place where he was beheaded; a church built by Pope St. Julius they add, in the Roman manuscript, that a church was afterward built there by Pope Julius in honor of St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr, and magnificently adorned. Anastasius the Librarian, in his Lives of the Pontiffs, writes in his account of the deeds of the same Pope St. Julius that he constructed not only a church but also a cemetery at that place. cemetery "He made," he says, "two basilicas in the city of Rome, one near the Forum and another on the Via Flaminia. He also made three cemeteries: one on the Via Flaminia, another on the Via Aurelia, and another on the Via Portuensis." Paul Aringhi, in Book 4 of Roma Subterranea, chapter 39, asserts that the one cemetery situated on the Via Flaminia is the same that is called to this day by the name of Blessed Pope Julius, who built it, and likewise of St. Valentine the Martyr, who was buried there. Pope St. Julius held the See from the year 336 to the year 351, and his feast is celebrated on the 12th of April.
[5] After this earlier church was destroyed, Pope Theodore, as the same Anastasius relates, built a church to Blessed Valentine on the Via Flaminia near the Milvian Bridge from the ground up, which he himself dedicated and to which he offered many gifts. Theodore was succeeded by St. Martin in the year 647, as we have shown elsewhere. another church built anew by Pope Theodore The same church was adorned by other Pontiffs. Benedict II, who held the See in the year 684, "in the church of Blessed Valentine on the Via Flaminia made a covering for the altar, with clasps and frames, and around it a most precious and very ample gold-embroidered cloth." adorned by Benedict II In the following century, St. Hadrian I, who held the See from the year 772 to 795, by St. Hadrian I "made in the basilica of the Holy Saviour a vestment of stauracin, that is, a greater curtain of four-fold tapestries... In the basilica of Blessed Valentine he likewise made a vestment of stauracin." Leo III, the successor of St. Hadrian, "in the church of St. Valentine made a gold-embroidered vestment, by St. Leo III, by Gregory IV and another vestment of most beautiful deep-dyed fabric." And afterward: "He also made in the church of St. Valentine the Martyr, which is situated outside the walls where his body rests, a silver crown weighing six pounds. The same most holy Pontiff, with the most prudent care, magnificently restored from scratch the roof and fabric of the basilica of Blessed Valentine the Martyr on the Via Flaminia, which were on the verge of collapse from extreme age." Finally, Gregory IV, who governed the Church from the year 827, "in the church of St. Valentine made a vestment of deep-dyed fabric and gammadiae of eight-fold work." So writes Anastasius. Now a gammadia, or gammadium, is a patriarchal and episcopal vestment, so called from the triangular form worked in gold which imitated the shape of the letter gamma. Stauracin vestments were those in which vine tendrils were woven: staurakia, according to Moschopulus, are helikes, that is, spiral vine tendrils; they were called "four-fold" and "eight-fold" from their pattern, as our own Ludovicus de la Cerda judges in his Adversaria Sacra, chapter 55, section 13, whom one may consult.
[6] Moreover, that the church of St. Valentine was once most celebrated and distinguished by exceptional veneration A solemn procession to the church of St. Valentine during the Greater Litanies is indicated by the established rite of ancient custom, according to which the entire Clergy of the city of Rome proceeded to it whenever the public supplications called the Greater Litanies were held, which were customarily celebrated on the feast of St. Mark. "Then," says Aringhi in chapter 39, "the whole assembly of the people gathered at the church of Blessed Lawrence in Lucina, with the Librarian himself as witness in his account of the deeds of Pope St. Leo III; thence all and each proceeded in order to the same church of St. Valentine; from which, crossing the Milvian Bridge and the Neronian Meadows in solemn rite, they advanced to the basilica of St. Peter, arriving in one body and in a unanimous throng in the manner of supplicants." The order of this sacred and venerable supplication is recited in two most ancient manuscript codices of the same basilica, where the Collects which were customarily recited in the same supplication are also inserted. Aringhi lists five of them under these titles: "The 7th day before the Kalends of May. The Greater Litany. At St. Lawrence, Prayer I for the Collect. At St. Valentine, II. Near the Milvian Bridge, III. At the Holy Cross, IV. And in the Atrium of St. Peter, V."
[7] Finally, lest anything be wanting to the pious and religious veneration of St. Valentine and the celebrity of his church, the Abbey of St. Valentine this same church was once honored with the title of an Abbey and is listed among the other Abbeys of the City by Peter Manlius in Aringhi with these words: "Outside the City, on the Via Flaminia, the Abbey of St. Valentine." In the ancient ritual of the basilica of St. Peter these words are also said to be read: "The Abbey of St. Valentine near the bridge." But now, as may be seen, Aringhi adds, the church lies buried in ruins and utterly neglected; yet its memory, as well as that of the cemetery itself, has not entirely faded away. For, as he reports in chapter 41, while Bosio, that lynx-eyed investigator of sacred antiquities, frequently traverses and surveys the Via Flaminia in search of any cemeteries that might perchance lie hidden there, vestiges of the demolished church in the villa of the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine, which is on the same road, proceeding to the right looking toward the Milvian Bridge, he came upon certain vestiges of the most ancient church of Blessed Valentine, namely, the very meager remains of its walls, which now lie entirely buried under the ruins. Moreover, this villa is situated at the foot of a hill which Bosio attests was called by the name of Valentine in certain ancient deeds of his villa. the hill of St. Valentine That villa, formerly belonging to Bosio, now to Abbot Francis and Lawrence de Rosa, brothers, nobles of Parma, is situated on the summit of the same hill; at the foot of which, a certain cavity presented itself to the investigator, into which, when he had first entered, he discovered a cemetery path that led to a certain place exhibiting the form of a small chapel entrance to the cemetery or at least of a chamber, in which he learned that certain sacred images still survived, although for the most part faded. So writes Aringhi, who presents an illustration of the chapel, together with two plates of the objects found in it.
[8] From this shrine of St. Valentine, the body of the holy Martyr was transferred within the City and placed in the church of St. Praxedes in the Monti district, the body of St. Valentine in St. Praxedes where Panciroli, in chapter 42, reports it is piously preserved to this day. But the head of the Saint was deposited in the church of St. Sebastian outside the same Flaminian Gate, which the same Panciroli, in Region 10, chapter 5, reports is called the church of SS. Valentine and Sebastian the head in St. Sebastian's; a finger in St. Clement's and has a monastery attached to it; in his Index he adds that a finger of the same Valentine is in the church of St. Clement, and that other relics are displayed in other churches. Masini, in his survey of Bologna, reports that certain relics of the same St. Valentine are preserved in two churches of Bologna. relics at Bologna At Macerata in the March of Ancona, in the church of the Society of Jesus dedicated to St. John, there is an arm of St. Valentine, an arm at Macerata and it is believed to be that of this St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr.
[9] Another arm of the same St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr, is reported another in Belgium to be preserved and publicly exhibited for the veneration of the Christian faithful in the church of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Denis in the Forest of Brochorensis, two miles from Mons in Hainaut, according to Raissius in his Hierogazophylacium Belgicum. Among the sacred relics of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, which John Malderus, Bishop of Antwerp, approved on the 30th of October in the year 1625, there is a large portion of bone of St. Valentine, certain relics at Antwerp concerning which, along with other relics received together, the following is read in the episcopal diploma, under letter I: "A long bone of St. Severus, Martyr, one of the Four Crowned Ones. Half a long bone of St. Valerius, Martyr. A large portion of bone of St. Valentine, Martyr and Priest. A long bone of St. Zeno, Martyr. Father Charles Scribanius, having received these relics in the year 1615 by permission of His Holiness and of the Reverend Father General, delivered them to the Professed House on the 14th of August 1619, as is attested by his letters sealed with the seal of the Society." Concerning St. Zeno we have treated above on this day. St. Valerius is venerated on the 14th of June, and St. Severus on the 8th of November. In Gaul, Saussay testifies in his Gallican Martyrology that certain relics of St. Valentine exist, in these words: "On this same day shines the triumph of St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr, and in Gaul a portion of whose relics was brought from Rome to Gaul together with several precious relics of other saints, and was deposited at Melun on the Seine in the monastery of St. Peter, not without a radiance of divine signs."
ACTS
From the Utrecht and Roman manuscripts, the Roman Breviary of the year 1522, and others, collated with the Life of SS. Marius and Martha, 19th of January.
Valentine, Priest and Martyr, at Rome (St.)
BHL Number: 8465
From manuscripts.
Lesson I
In the time when Claudius was persecuting the Christians, he seized a certain Priest, a venerable man named Valentine, St. Valentine, when the Emperor Claudius flattered him and shut him in prison in fetters and chains. After two days he ordered him to be brought before him in his palace near the amphitheater. When he had been presented before him, he said to him: "Why do you not enjoy our friendship and live with the assembly of our Republic? I hear of remarkably admirable wisdom in you, and yet, being wise, you display yourself in the superstition of vanity." He shows the truth of the Christian faith Valentine the Priest answered and said: "If you knew the gift of the Lord, you too would rejoice, and your Republic with you, and you would reject the demons and the idols made by hand, and confess one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, and His Son Jesus Christ." A certain counselor of the law who was standing by Claudius answered and the vanity of the gods and said in a loud voice to Blessed Valentine the Priest: "And what do you dispute concerning the god Jupiter or Mercury?" Valentine the Priest answered and said: "They were most wretched and base men, who throughout the whole time of their lives always lived wickedly in impurities and pleasures and the disgraces of their bodies. But show me their genealogy, and you will see how base they were."
Lesson II
The counselor of the law answered, crying out in a loud voice: "He has blasphemed the Gods and the rulers of the Republic." On that same day Claudius listened more patiently, and answered Valentine the Priest, saying: He instructs Claudius, who listened kindly "If Christ is God, why do you not reveal to me what is true?" Valentine the Priest answered and said: "Let your clemency hear. Do you listen to me, O King, and your soul shall be saved and your Republic shall increase, and your enemies shall be destroyed, and you shall be victorious in all things, and you shall enjoy your kingdom here and in the world to come. This only do I urge: that you repent of the blood of the Saints which you have shed, and believe in Jesus Christ, and be baptized, and you shall be saved." Claudius answered and said to those standing by: "Hear, citizens of Rome and assembly of the Republic, what sound doctrine is proclaimed by this man." Claudius, turned aside Calpurnius the Prefect answered and said in a loud voice: "You are seduced, O Prince, by false doctrine. And if it is right that we should abandon what we have worshiped and adored from our cradles, judge for yourselves."
Lesson III
In that same hour the heart of Claudius was changed, and with sadness he handed him over to Calpurnius the Prefect, saying: He is handed over by Calpurnius the Prefect to Asterius "Listen to him patiently, and if the counsel he declares is not sound, do to him what the laws have prescribed against a sacrilegious man. But if it is sound, let his just petition be heard." Then Calpurnius the Prefect, taking Valentine the Priest, gave him to a certain Asterius, his officer, saying: "If you can humble him with gentle words, I will make your teaching known to Claudius, and you shall be his friend, and you shall be multiplied in riches and possessions." Asterius then took him and led him to his house. Before him he invokes Christ And when Valentine the Priest had entered the house of Asterius, he knelt down and prayed, saying: "O God of all things visible and invisible, Maker and Creator of the human race, who sent Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver us from this present world and to lead us from darkness to the true light, who, commanding us, said: Matthew 11:28 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest'; do You convert this household, and grant it light after darkness, that they may know You as Lord and Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen."
Lesson IV
When Asterius the officer heard this, he said to Valentine the Priest: "I marvel at your wisdom, that you say your Christ is the true light." He instructs him Valentine the Priest answered, saying in a loud voice: "Truly the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, is the true light, who enlightens every man coming into the world." Asterius answered, saying: "If He enlightens every man, I shall now put it to the test whether He is God, or I shall extinguish your deception." And he added, saying: "I have an adopted daughter whom I have loved from the cradle, and suddenly, nearly two years ago, she was disfigured by the blemish of a cataract; I will bring her to you, so that, when she has been cured, I will do whatever you command." Valentine the Priest answered and said: his blind daughter "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, bring her to me." Asterius then ran anxiously and brought the blind girl to Blessed Valentine the Priest. Blessed Valentine, raising his hands to heaven, his eyes streaming with tears, having invoked Christ said: "Lord God Almighty, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies, who sent Your Son, our Lord, to call us from darkness to the true light, I invoke You, an unworthy sinner -- You who wish all to be saved and will that none should perish -- that they may know that You are God, and the Father of all, and the Creator, who opened the eyes of the man born blind and raised the rotting Lazarus from the tomb. I invoke You, who are the true light and the Lord of all Princes and Powers, that not my will but Yours be done upon this Your handmaid, and deign to enlighten her with the light of Your understanding." and by the laying on of hands he gives her sight And he placed his hands upon her eyes, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, enlighten Your handmaid, for You are God, the true light." And when he had said this, her eyes were opened.
Lesson V
When Asterius saw this, he fell at the feet of Blessed Valentine, and both of them were acting thus, saying: "By Christ, through whom we have come to know the light, he believes we beseech you that, since you know what must be done, you do it, so that our souls may be saved." Valentine the Priest answered and said: "Then do what I say: and if you believe with your whole heart, shatter all your idols, and fast, and release the penalties of all, after a three-day fast and let each one be baptized in his own confession, and he shall be saved." Then he prescribed for them a fast of three days, and because Asterius had many Christians in his custody, he released them all. When the three days were completed, he baptizes him with his household, numbering about forty-four on the holy Lord's Day, he baptized Asterius with his entire household. And he summoned to himself the holy Bishop iCallistus, who came and confirmed Asterius with his entire household, souls of both sexes numbering approximately kforty-four. When Marius and his wife Martha, together with their sons Audifax and Abachum, heard this -- SS. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum rejoicing namely, that the blind girl had been given sight by Blessed Valentine, and that through her illumination the entire household of Asterius had come to faith -- they came with joy to the house of Asterius, giving thanks to God, and they remained there thirty-two days.
After these days, Claudius made inquiry about Asterius his officer. And it was reported to him that the girl in his house had been given sight, and that through this sign he had been baptized in the name of Christ, together with his entire household, by Valentine the Priest. Enraged, he sent soldiers and seized all whom he found in his house. When these were killed by command of the Emperor And when they had been brought in chains -- among them were Marius and Martha, Audifax and Abachum, most noble persons from Persia, who had come to pray at the shrines of the holy Apostles -- he ordered them to be separated from the assembly of the Saints, and commanded that Asterius with his entire household be led in chains to the city of Ostia and there, under the examination of punishments, lbreathe his last. He ordered that Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum be heard in person. But he commanded that Valentine the Priest be beaten with clubs and undergo the sentence of beheading. St. Valentine is beheaded He was beheaded on the Via Flaminia on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of March. His body was collected by a certain matron, mSavinella, and she buried him in the same place where he was beheaded, he is buried receiving the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him. nAfterward, a church was built there by Pope Julius in honor of St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr, a church is built for him and magnificently adorned, in which, to those who devoutly seek them, the benefits of the Lord are bestowed to this very day.
Annotations