It is made out of two floors
In the VESTIBULE seventh century paintings quite damaged and inscriptions on the walls from the adjacent burial area that the inscriptions themselves date from 318 to 523
In 1986 a landslide from the hill above partially destroyed it
BASILICA DI S. VALENTINOBasilica of St. Valentine
Next to the catacomb
Built by Julius I (337/352) and transformed by Honorius I (625/638) on the tomb of the saint from Terni martyred at 97 years of age, according to tradition, under Aurelian (270/275) after having been persecuted by Claudius II Gothic (268/270)
The body was moved in the thirteenth century and the area was abandoned
Tradition has it that he joined in marriage the young Christian Serapia, seriously ill, and the Roman centurion Sabino. The marriage had been thwarted by her parents, but Valentine had been called by Sabino at the bedside of dying young girl and after having baptised Sabino he then joined him marriage to his beloved
His feast is linked to the ancient Roman celebrations that were held every February 15 in honor of the gods Pan, Faun and Lupercus: the LUPERCALIA were linked to the purification of the fields and fertility rites
The word purify, februar in Latin, caused the name of the month of February. These celebrations were extremely licentious, were prohibited by Augustus and were later suppressed by Gelasius in 494
The Church christianized the pagan rite of fertility anticipating a day on February 14 and giving the martyr the ability to protect lovers wanting to get married and have children
St. Valentine's reputation as a patron saint of lovers grew dramatically in early 1900s, when an image in the neighborhood of Little Italy in New York was considered able to help lovers
No comments:
Post a Comment