Valentine, Saint, d. c.270, Roman martyr priest. The customs connected with him in English-speaking countries are probably a survival from a period when a pagan festival associated with love occurred about Feb. 14, which was his feast day until it was dropped from the liturgical calendar in 1969. He is now popularly considered the patron of lovers and the helper of those unhappily in love.

(died 3rd century, Rome; feast day February 14) Christian martyr whose legend inspired the lover's holiday Valentine's Day. According to tradition, he was a Roman priest and physician who died during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus and was buried on the Via Flaminia. The priest signed a letter to his jailer's daughter, whom he had befriended and with whom he had fallen in love, “from your Valentine.” The legend of the bishop of Terni, Italy—also called Valentine and also martyred in Rome—may refer to the same person.

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