Saint Valentine of Rome was a priest and bishop in the Great Roman Empire who ministered to Christians who were persecuted there. He was martyred and buried at a Christian cemetery to the north of Rome, on February 14.
According to legend, St. Valentine signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and healed from blindness. Another common legend states that he defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from being conscripted to serve in war.
Numerous churches around the world claim to be in possession of his relics. These include his skull on display iat the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, a shoulder blade at the Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Prague, a vessel tinged with his blood and other artifacts at the Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin, and relics kept inside a wax effigy of the saint situated in front of the altar of Old St. Ferdinand Shrine in Florissant, Missouri.
He is the patron saint of lovers, people with epilepsy, and beekeepers.