DO YOU KNOW THAT SAINT VALENTINE IS BURIED IN ROME ? |
Rome has many supremacies but I think that one of the most forgotten is the one that can make it for me the worldwide capital of love, more than any Venice or European city put together.
Why am I doing this statement ? Because saint Valentine , martyr of the 3d century AD is buried in the christian catacombs of Rome which bring its name.
Rome is the capital of Christendom and the early Christians were buried in cemeteries called catacombs. Since the agreement between the Holy See and the Italian government the catacombs belong to the vatican and they are in number of sixty and are located in all the cardinal points of Rome. The most visited catacombs of Rome are the catacombs of saint Callixtus and the catacombs of saint Sebastian and Domitilla, located along the Appian Way.
The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair.
The creation of the feast of saint Valentine may have been an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia that was still being celebrated in fifth-century Rome, on February 15, as the english scholars say.
The catacombs of saint Valentine are closed to the visitors since the 17th century and are famous in the early christian art for the first representation of saint Paul depicted on a boat when he was traveling towards the island of Malta.