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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture According to Butler's Lives of the Saints revised by Herbert Thurston SJ and Donald Attwater there is evidence of early local cultus in the case of both St Valentines. The one who died on 14 Feb according to the Roman Martyrology was buried on the Flaminian Way, where a basilica was erected as early as 350CE, and a catacomb was later formed on the spot. The location of his remains was known and they were subsequently translated (all of which points to some considerable early cult).

The other Valentine, associated with Interamna (Terni), also a priest, has evidence of a similar nature.

There is a difference of opinion about whether there is only one or two Valentines. The Bollandist Delahaye favoured the view that a Valentine of Interamna suffered in Rome and the Romans venerated him with a special cultus, though Terni also claimed him and invented a separate legend about him. But Professor O Marucchi holds fast to the idea that there were two separate Valentines.

See

Delahaye Les Origines du culte des martyrs, pp270, 315-6.

O Marucchi Il cimitero e la basilica di S. Valentino (1890)
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