Like Christmas, Easter and All Hallows’ Eve, Valentine’s Day began as a pagan festival and was gradually co-opted by the Catholic Church and converted into a Christian holiday. In this case, the sex-laden, fertility-focused mid-February Roman holiday Lupercalia was phased out in favor of commemorating Saint Valentine.
Lupercalia honored the half-man, half-goat Roman god Faunus, who reigned over the forest, plains and fields. As there were no fields with cannabis in Italy until the 1600s – and they were about 400 miles north of Rome anyhow, we can’t assume that Faunus defended man’s right to toke. However, the devotees who soaked Rome’s Palatine Hill with ritual-sacrifice blood for Faunus every year would probably take credit for prepping the soil for primo weed in the centuries to follow.
Head Magazine collected information from Italy’s leading historians to dig deep into Roman history in the language closest to the one spoken at Lupercalia festivals (Italian being the closest to Latin). Here’s what we learned about Valentine’s Day’s history from authoritative sources seldom consulted abroad.
Head Magazine also conducted research in Italian to gather hard-to-find facts on Italy’s movement to reclassify cannabidiol (CBD) as a narcotic and ban it. Check out what we discovered here.
The Wolf Before the Goat
Before there was a half-goat, half-man deity, there was the legendary she-wolf (Latin “lupus”) who raised the twin brothers who founded Rome: Romulus and Remus. According to the then-contemporary historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his work “Antichità Romane,” it was these brothers who initiated what would go on to become Lupercalia. To honor their surrogate mother, they established two orders of priests: the Luperci Quinctiani and the Luperci Fabiani. These priests kept the she-wolf’s den (named Lupercal by the brothers) holy with annual blood sacrifices. These sacrifices were known as the Lupercalia (a plural word in Latin).
The she-wolf who rescued Romulus and Remus from certain death and nurtured them until their adoption by a married couple received sacrificial worship for centuries.
The Goat that Fathered Rome
A goat entered the lore when it was designated as a symbol of fertility by the goddess Juno, as recounted by the ancient poet Ovid in Volume II of his work “Fastes.” The women taken from the Sabines people and brought to Rome to populate the land were sterile. So, prayers went up to Juno, and she answered them with a verbal proclamation. From “Fastes: Vol. II” [as translated by Google from the original Latin provided in the cited Swiss article, as well as the article’s French]:
“Mothers of Latium, [Juno] says, may a sacred goat penetrate you! … The sacred goat, [a soothsayer] says, was the beginning of the Italian mothers. He [the soothsayer] slaughtered the goat: the girls, having been ordered, gave their backs to be beaten with the skins cut off. The moon resumed its ten new horns with a movement, and the husband was suddenly a father and a married mother.”
Historians specializing in prehistoric Italy explain that this tradition was established in the end of winter because that’s when wolves were most prone to approach sheepfolds out of hunger-driven exhaustion. The final month of winter was a period of transition, so it became a time of both preparation and purification as the Romans ushered in their new year.
Lupercalia was celebrated ante diem XV Kalendas Martias, which was equivalent to February 15. The name “February” didn’t exist in Romulus’ calendar, so the designation of Feb. 13 to 15 for the festival was a later invention. The month’s name, however, was born of the native language of the Sabine women brought to Rome to procreate, whose word for “purification” was “februa.”
Ancient Romans believed that their population grew as a result of slapping women with strips of a sacred dead goat.
Wolf, Goat and Man as One: Faunus Lupercus
In the fourth century, Romans were primarily farmers and shepherds, so plants and animals took priority in their lives. Accordingly, they worshipped divine entities who protected agriculture and governed the rural and pastoral spheres. One such deity was Faunus, whose name derives from the Latin word “faveo,” meaning “the favorable and good.” Faunus was the god of the countryside and woods, protector of flocks grazing in the fields and forests. (For analyses of the Greek god Pan’s influence, read Hubert Pestalozza’s explanation here and Antonella Bazzoli’s commentary here.)
Ancient Romans devoted themselves to the supernatural protection of what kept them alive – plants and animals – and they determined that Faunus provided that protection./Image credit: Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Because wolves were a great threat to the flocks and Faunus defended them against wolves, he was also known as Lupercus (again from Latin’s “lupus” for “wolf). His Lupercus persona, however, had an extra superpower: oracular abilities. In perfect irony, to receive a prophecy from Faunus Lupercus the oracle, his priests, the Luperci, would sleep on the bloody corpse of a freshly sacrificed sheep out in the woods. They believed this would prompt Faunus Lupercus to speak to them in their dreams.
Lupercalia: Blood on Parade
The Lupercalia ceremonies were aimed at propitiating the fertility of the earth, animals and man, but man was certainly what stood out most. The priestly orders charged with leading the people in worshipping Romulus and Remus’ she-wolf mother, the Brotherhood of the Luperci, met annually at Lupercal (Palatine Hill) in the final month of winter.
There, they had a banquet and sacrificed a goat and smeared the blood from the sacrificial dagger onto the foreheads of two young men, one from each priestly order. The blood was then ritually cleaned off with white woolen cloth dipped in milk. (Incidentally, red and white as Valentine’s Day colors derive from the blood and milk, respectively, in that ceremony.) That’s the tame part; the rest was described by ancient writer Plutarch in “Vite Parallele” as “ritual actions difficult to explain.”
The Luperci gathered annually at the she-wolf’s den, Lupercal, at the base of Palatine Hill in Rome/ Photo by .Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
With traces of blood and milk on their face, the two Luperci were forced to laugh, symbolizing a transition from death to rebirth. Then, they had to run naked or covered only with a goat-skin loincloth, carrying strips of skin torn off the sacrificed goat.
Carolina Milite summarizes Plutarch’s recounting of what took place [as translated by Google]:
“Then the two young men, having cut the skin of the sacrificed goat into strips, had to run around the hill half-naked, with their sides covered by a goatskin, their bodies greased with fat and their faces hidden by a mud mask, striking both the ground to promote fertility, and anyone they met during the race. The matrons of Rome and the young brides who wanted to have children would face the blows inflicted by the Luperci, rather than avoid them, believing that from such symbolic gestures they would obtain fertility and fecundation.”
Another source adds that married women regarded the slaps as a means of atonement, convinced that this would bring happiness to their marriage.
In servitude of Faunus, two Luperci priests ran around in the dead of winter butt-naked, with only a scrap of bloody goat skin covering their manhood – sometimes./Painting by Auguste Vinchon, 1814.National School of Fine Arts (Beaux-Arts de Paris), Paris.
The Limited Faunus Fan Club
Lest it appear otherwise, by the way, not all Romans bought into this. Many Romans found the rituals intolerable. As Association NUNC points out [as translated by Google], “for the Romans steeped in ‘gravitas’ – restraint and moral rigor – the primitive, wild and unbridled character of the Lupercalia must have been difficult to swallow.” Cicero, in the first century B.C., disdainfully called the rituals “wild gatherings [established] before freedom and laws.” Valerius Maximus wrote about them that they were celebrations “promoted by hilarity and excess of wine.”
On the other hand, in the interest of presenting a balanced perspective, a humorous – but unverifiable – anecdote from Duccio Balestracci bears sharing [as translated by Google]:
“The festival was a huge success. Julius Caesar in 44 BC had even invented a third, personal, group, that of the Luperci Julii and had thought of a scary political magic. Mark Antony, in fact, at the height of the ceremony, had detached himself from the dancing group and, naked as a caterpillar with a swinging little willy, had presented Caesar with a laurel wreath to crown him. The people had become so pissed off, for the obvious forcing, that Caesar had to declare that the whole thing had taken place ‘without his knowledge’ by having the crown carried by Jupiter Capitolinus.”
The History channel’s online coverage of Lupercalia – compiled from Catholic Online, National Public Radio and an Indian website – contradicts Balestracci, however. It says: “In Plutarch’s ‘Life of Julius Caesar,’ Caesar famously refuses a golden crown presented to him by Mark Antony during the feast of Lupercalia.”
Did Julius Caesar partake in Lupercalia debauchery? We may never know for sure.
Luck and Love: The Couples Game
After a grand feast came the de facto sex lottery, when bachelors (“aspiring werewolves” in numerous Italian sources) and virgins were fixed up for casual sex to complete the fertility rite. According to the aforementioned political scientist Milite, the climate that was created was “highly erotic,” and every girl, to paraphrase, was up for grabs.
The aspiring werewolves and virgins wrote their names on little pieces of paper, and these went into two urns. Simone Conversono explains what happened next [as translated by Google]:
“At that point, two children previously baptized with milk drew a piece of paper for the men and one for the women several times, designating couples (perhaps two individuals who didn’t even know each other) who were to live together in intimacy for the whole year, corroborating the fertility of the community, subject to divine blessing by Mars, Romulus, Pan, Lupercus and the Roman matrons embodying the mythical figure of the she-wolf.”
The Lupercalia fertility rite demanded that you hook up with your fate-assigned valentine, no matter what you thought of your year-long sexual escort.
Out with the Goat, in with the Saint
In A.D. 492, Pope Gelasius I was elected to what would become a four-year reign. During that time, he carried out a highly ambitious Christianization campaign at every level of society. Included in this was the abolishment of all pagan rituals. In the case of Lupercalia, that meant overriding Senate Majority Leader Andromachus’ revival of the previously phased-out holiday. Bringing back Lupercalia was the senator’s desperate attempt to rebuild Rome after a plague had decimated the city. In “Adversus Andromachum senatorem,” the pope lashed out against the celebration, forbidding the faithful to participate in the ceremony in any way.
Arlando Casali explains that after the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, had been deposed in 476, the pope was the only remaining authority in Rome. For that reason [as translated by Google], “[Pope Gelasius I] was able to obtain the definitive abolition of the festival, which he deemed profoundly immoral, with relative ease.” However, the pope didn’t immediately fill the vacuum with a substitute Christian holiday.
Pope Gelasuis /Image byWolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
As the pagan customs – not limited to Lupercalia – persisted, the clergy felt threatened by the seeming permanence of them. In 496, the Catholic Church dedicated Feb. 14 (the Julian calendar’s equivalent of Romulus’ Lupercalia timeframe) to a third-century priest executed on Feb. 14, 269: Saint Valentine.
Stella Grillo states [as translated by Google]: “The Pope’s aim was to definitively eliminate profane traditions, making up for them with Christian-style ceremonies.” Balestracci’s analysis expounds on that:
“[T]o domesticate [Lupercalia], it was necessary to superimpose a psychologically and folklorically equivalent element, and it was thought to promote the cult of the saint of lovers, who would take the place (with only one day difference: the 14th instead of the 15th) of that orgiastic saraband of naked young men who jumped on women. Thus, Bishop Valentine found himself at the center of a sacred status in which love was still a central element, but purified of the wild eros that characterized the pagan festival.”
Image by Elena https://www.flickr.com/photos/89471816@N00/18564661630CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A Catch-All Patron Saint: Love, Plague, Beekeepers and More
Saint Valentine wasn’t appointed the patron saint of lovers until 1496, but today he covers a lot more ground than that. According to Catholic Online, he is currently the patron saint of:
- Engaged couples
- Beekeepers
- Epilepsy
- Fainting
- Greetings
- Happy marriages
- Love
- Lovers
- Plague
- Travelers
- Young people
In 1969, after basically auditing Saint Valentine, the Catholic Church concluded that not enough was known about the man to keep him on the General Roman calendar. So, his feast was removed, revoking any religious purpose behind celebrating him. However, he was kept in the Feb. 14 spot of Roman Martyrolgy. So, he’s still holy in the Church’s eyes, just too vague of a person to merit a Church-sanctioned day of recognition and commemoration.
Aforementioned journalist Casali claims that even Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church from 2013 to the present day, admitted to not knowing who Saint Valentine was. Rather, Francis has always [as translated by Google] “associated the day of lovers with an exquisitely consumerist celebration.”
The only religious attachment to Saint Valentine left is in the cities for which he is a patron saint. Casali explains [as translated by Google]:
“In Bussolengo, in the province of Verona, for example, the cult of Valentine dates back to 1300 and has nothing to do with lovers. Here the holy bishop is considered rather the patron saint of livestock, due to a miracle that occurred in 1700. In Vico del Gargano, he is instead the protector of citrus groves, and in Monselice in Veneto, he protects against epilepsy. In Germany and Russia, Valentine is venerated as a miracle-working saint, and in fact the only aspect that emerges from his Passio (written in the 6th century and the only official text on his life) is his ability to heal terrible illnesses, while according to another tradition (testified by a painting made in 1575 by Jacopo dal Ponte and now kept at the Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa) Valentine is said to have restored sight to Saint Lucilla, blind since the age of two, subsequently converting both her and her father Nemesio to Christianity. In fact, until the 16th century there is no evidence of a connection between the feast of St. Valentine and that of lovers.”
Even in “fair Verona,” home of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, Saint Valentine had nothing to do with lovers, where he was actually the patron saint of livestock./Photo of Juliette’s Balcony by Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A Saint Without a Home
Also of note, there’s universal disagreement – even within the Church – as to which martyred Saint Valentine is the one honored on Feb. 14. The top two contenders are Saint Valentine of Terni (Umbria, Italy) and Saint Valentine of Rome (Lazio, Italy). Adding to the confusion, many sources believe that the stories told about the Terni and Rome Valentines pertain to the same man.
The preponderance of Italian sources consulted for this article lean toward Terni’s Valentine for one reason or another, and it’s interesting to note that Faunus was from Terni too. But Rome is the city with all the touristy stuff for the martyred Saint Valentine. You can even see his adorned skull in the Roman church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. (If you prefer Terni’s display, visit the Basilica of Saint Valentine there.)
The skull of the Saint Valentine on display in Rome. Image credit: Dnalor 01, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Terni and Rome Valentines both have unproven backstories linking them to romance, in keeping with the 16th century push install him as the lovers’ patron saint. Consult the sources cited to read the full stories, but the short versions are:
- Saint Valentine of Terni: Helped imprisoned Christians escape their torture and confinement, even curing a jailer’s daughter of blindness.
- Saint Valentine of Rome: Defied Emperor Claudius II’s prohibition of marriage for Roman soldiers, marrying couples in secret to rebel against injustice.
Conclusion
From what we know about Saint Valentine, the guy seems to be more famous for the day he was beheaded (Feb. 14) than for anything he actually achieved – or didn’t achieve – in his life. His date of martyrdom bought him immortality as a stand-in for the pagan holiday occurring Feb. 13 to 15, instantly replacing sex for sex’s sake (Lupercalia) with wholesome love (Valentine’s Day). And yet, even though Lupercalia was ousted, today’s Valentine’s Day traditions focus on sex as heavily as the Roman priests of Faunus did, don’t they?
In all the research that went into this article, the best summary comes from Isabella Laden of the Italian news outlet Vita Gazette, who said [as translated by Google]:
“The closest parallel between Lupercalia and modern Valentine’s Day traditions seems to be that the Roman festival involved two nearly naked young men slapping everyone around them with pieces of goat skin. According to the ancient writer Plutarch, some young married women believed that being hit with the skin promoted conception and easy childbirth.”
So, whether you’re participating in the subliminally pagan version of Feb. 14 (sex) or the pseudo-Christian version of Feb. 14 (love), you’re covering both if you get naked and slap skin to have babies. (Just leave animals out of it, please.)
Kathleen Hearons is a writer, editor, linguist and voice over actor from Los Angeles. She specializes in creative writing and research-intensive analysis and reporting.
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