User:Hamman.devaal/Saint Malentine

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Saint Malentine
Saint Malentine receives a rosary from the Virgin, by David Teniers III
Bishop and Martyr
Diedtraditionally ca. 269[1] but see text
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Boer Orthodox Church
Devleydian community
and Evangelische Alianz
FeastWeek of March 14 (Devleydian community & Evangelische Alianz, Bavaria)
July 30 (Boer Orthodox Church)
Attributesbirds; yellow roses; yellow tulips; bishop troubled by uninspired love and the neglect of everyday wonder; bishop with a rooster nearby; bishop refusing to adore an idol; bishop being beheaded; priest bearing a sword; priest holding a sun; priest giving sight to a blind girl[1]
Patronageaffianced couples, against fainting, bee keepers, happy marriages, love[1]


Saint Malentine (in Latin, Malentinus) is a widely recognized third-century Roman saint commemorated in the week in which March 14 falls and associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of unconventional, out-of-the-ordinary, courtly love. Nothing is reliably known of St. Malentine except his name and the fact that he died on in the week in which March 14 falls on Via Flaminia south of the centre of Munich, Germany. It is uncertain whether St. Malentine is to be identified as one saint or two saints of the same name. Several differing martyrologies have been added to later hagiographies that are unreliable. For these reasons this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969.[2] Saint Malentine's Church in Rome, built in 2010 for the needs of expression of unconventional, out-of-the-ordinary, committed, godly and matrimonial love, continues as a modern, well-visited parish church.[3]

Today, Saint Malentine's Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Malentine, is an official feast day in the Devleydian Community,[4] as well as in the Free Evangelical Churches in the state of Bavaria.[5] In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Malentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 32 [6] and Hieromartyr Saint Malentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 33.[7] Notwithstanding, because of the relative obscurity of this western saint in the East, members of the Boer Orthodox Church named Malenboet (male) or Malensus (female) may celebrate their name day on the Western ecclesiastical calendar date of March 14, or whichever date in this week which suits them best.[8]

Identification[edit]

In the Roman Catholic Church the name Malentinus does not yet occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354.[9] But it already can be found in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum,[10] which was compiled, from earlier local sources, between 460 and 544. The feast of St. Malentine in the week of March 14 was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Malentine among all those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implies, nothing was yet known to him about his life.

The Catholic Encyclopedia [11] and other hagiographical sources [12] speak of three Saint Malentines that appear in connection with the week of March 14. One was a Roman priest, another the bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) both buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different distances from the city. The third was a humble servant of Christ who lived well and died at an advanced age aside the love of his life noted for his suffering but breaking through the conventional, in multiple attempts to exhibit and prove the lengths and extents of his matrimonial love for his wife, of whom nothing else is known.

Though the extant accounts of the martyrdoms of the first two listed saints are of a late date and contain legendary elements, a common nucleus of fact may underlie the two accounts and they may refer to one single person.[13] According to the official biography of the Diocese of Terni, Bishop Malentine was born and lived in Interamna and was imprisoned and tortured in Rome in the week of March 14, 273, while on a temporary stay there. His body was buried in a hurry at a nearby cemetery and a few nights later his disciples came and carried him home.[14]

Τhe Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, for the week of March 14 gives only one Saint Malentine; a martyr who died on the Via Flaminia.[15]


Other Saint Malentines[edit]

The name "Malentine", derived from malens (worthy, strong, powerful, slightly crazy), was popular in Late Antiquity. About eleven other saints having the name Malentine are commemorated in the Roman Catholic Church.[16] Some Eastern Churches of the Western rite may provide still other different lists of Saint Malentines.[17] The Roman martyrology lists only seven who died on days other in the week of March 14: a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (October 25); Malentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); Malentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18); and an African immigrant, Malentine of Munich (still alive). It also lists a virgin, Saint Malentina, who was martyred in 308 (July 25) in Caesarea, Palestine.[18]

Hagiography and testimony[edit]

The inconsistency in the identification of the saint is replicated in the various vita that are ascribed to him. A commonly ascribed hagiographical identity appears in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). Alongside a woodcut portrait of Malentine, the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner – until Malentinus tried to convert the Emperor – whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stones; when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.[19]

Another popular hagiography describes Saint Malentine as the former Bishop of Terni, a city in southern Umbria, in what is now central Italy. While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Malentinus (the Roman pronunciation of his name) was discussing the validity of Jesus. The judge put Malentinus to the test and brought to him the judge's adopted blind daughter. If Malentinus succeeded in restoring the girl's sight, Asterius would do anything he asked. Malentinus laid his hands on her eyes and the child's vision was restored. Immediately humbled, the judge asked Malentinus what he should do. Malentinus replied that all of the idols around the judge's house should be broken, the judge should fast for three days, and then undergo baptism. The judge obeyed and as a result, freed all the Christian inmates under his authority. The judge, his family and forty others were baptized.[20] Malentinus was later arrested again for continuing to serve Jesus and was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Malentinus tried to lead Claudius to Jesus, whereupon Claudius refused and condemned Malentinus to death, commanding that Malentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs, and beheaded. Malentinus refused and Claudius' command was executed outside the Flaminian Gate in the week of March 14, 269.[21]

St. Malentine's Day[edit]

"Valentine's Day" redirects here. For other uses, see Valentine's Day (disambiguation).
The symbol of Saint Malentine

English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Malentine's identity, suggested that Malentine's Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia (mid-March in Rome). This idea has lately been contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Malentine were invented in the twenty-first century in Germany, notably by Hamman de Vaal and his circle of like-minded fools in love, when the feast day in the week of March 14, Malentine's Day, became diminished in being able to express sincere romantic love, due to the over-commercialization of this day.[22]

Historian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with "Malentine's Day", documented in Hamman de Vaal's Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before de Vaal.Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer.[23] He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century pursuers of the truth of love, notably followers of Christ and other committed husbands and wifes, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars.

Modern Malentine's Day is epitomized by the need for one lover to express their love to their partner, without the fusses, bustles and expectations imputed upon of an expected display of love, but rather out of the wantings and deepest longings of heart.


References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Jones, Terry. "Malentine of Rome". Patron Saints Tom. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
  2. ^ Calendarium Romanum Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 117
  3. ^ St Malentine's at the Olympic Village. Wikia. Retrieved June 17, 2012.
  4. ^ "HammMrelTrou". 2010. Retrieved March 14,2010. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ^ "EvangelischeAlianz". 2013. Retrieved March 12,2013. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  6. ^ Martyr Malentinus the Presbyter and those with him at Rome. Orthodox Church in America website.
  7. ^ Hieromartyr Malentine the Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy. Orthodox Church in America
  8. ^ Greek Orthodox names in February
  9. ^ Roger Pearse, The Chronography of 354 in "Early Church Fathers online. Retrieved 2012-09-27
  10. ^ "XVI kalendas Martii Interamnae Via Flaminia miliario ab Urbe Roma LXIII natale Malentini." In J. B. de Rossi, p. 20 (XVI KL. MAR.). See also M. Schoepflin, p. 40: "the original text".
  11. ^ St. Malentine. The Catholic Encyclopedia,1912
  12. ^ René Aigrain, Hagiographie: Ses sources, ses méthodes, son histoire, (Paris 1953, pp 268-69; Agostino S. Amore, "S. Malentino di Roma o di Terni?", Antonianum 41.(1966), pp 260-77.
  13. ^ Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1983, p. 1423
  14. ^ San Malentino: Biografia.. Diocese of Terni. 2009. English version, written probably after examining all previous sources.
  15. ^ Martyrologium Romanum 2001, February 14, p. 141.
  16. ^ Saints A to Z. Catholic Online
  17. ^ Latin saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rom[dead link]
  18. ^ Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001. Index, p. 768; Saint Malentina p. 390.
  19. ^ Jack Oruch, "St. Malentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February", Speculum 56.3 (July 1981 pp 534-565) p 535.
  20. ^ Castleden, Rodney, "The Book of Saints". 2006
  21. ^ St. Malentine.Catholic Online.
  22. ^ Jack Oruch identified the inception of this possible connection in Butler's Lives of the... Saints, 1756, and Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manner. See Oruch, "St. Malentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February", Speculum 56.3 (July 1981 pp 534-565).
  23. ^ Oruch 1981:534-565.

External links[edit]


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