Saint Valentine is especially revered in Orthodoxy. She is the personification of faith, endurance and mercy. If you turn to the Benefactor every day, then faith in God will only be strengthened, and the soul will be cleansed of sins and prodigal thoughts. To this day, the Great Martyr Valentina comes to the aid of those who are desperate, cannot find their way, live in poverty, work tirelessly and yet do not reap the benefits.
The saint also strengthens love in the family, gives respect, peace, prosperity, protects from dangers, enemies, emergencies and natural disasters. Read on to learn more about the role of Saint Valentine in Orthodoxy.
Saint Valentine is especially revered in Orthodoxy
Life of Saint Valentine of Caesarea
The life of Saint Valentine was completely dedicated to the Lord. For this boundless love, she suffered humiliation and painful death. The Blessed One lived in the Egyptian city of Caesarea. At that time it was considered one of the most luxurious in the entire Mediterranean. Today, only ruins remain of this once rich and large place.
At that time, Caesarea was ruled by Diocletian, who hated the Lord and worshiped idols. Therefore, he wished death to everyone who had ever mentioned Jesus Christ and indulged in prayers to the Christian God.
Valentina of Caesarea was one of these people. She was a righteous woman, helped the poor, firmly believed in the Lord and followed His commandments.
When Maximilian learned that the woman refused to worship his deity, he sent his soldiers after her. They brought her to a pagan temple and ordered her to present a sacrifice to the idol. But Valentina refused to do this. Moreover, when she approached the altar, she threw a stone at it, turned away and wanted to leave.
This greatly angered Maximilian. For such an act, he ordered her to be beaten and then her head to be cut off. During the beating, the Saint was beaten with rods and her ribs were broken. But Valentina endured and prayed to God all the time. After this, the Great Martyr was executed.
Curriculum Vitae
Not much is known about the life of Saint Valentine of Caesarea. A virgin with that name actually lived in Palestine and firmly believed in Christ. Her life and martyrdom in the name of the most holy faith will never be forgotten by Christians.
Origin
Valentina lived in Palestine at the end of the 3rd century and died in the 8th year of the 4th century. The virgin came from the Palestinian city of Caesarea. The saint went down in history under the name Valentina of Caesarea. This woman's family also, in all likelihood, professed Christianity.
Life of the Martyr
Valentina lived during the reign of the Roman emperors Gaius Maximian and Maximin Daza. Each of these rulers believed in and worshiped pagan Gods. Valentina, a resident of Caesarea, was a Christian. Believers in the Savior gathered in ancient Gaza and other cities and read the Holy Scriptures. The worship of Jesus Christ displeased the Roman rulers, who only worshiped their pagan Gods. Christians were persecuted for their faith, their churches were closed, and holy books were burned.
Valentina, despite persecution, remained a faithful servant of Jesus Christ. The ruler of the Palestinian region, Firmilian, by order of the Roman emperor, was obliged to fight Christians. He ordered the capture of the Palestinian women who believed in Christ - Hennath and Paul. They were brought to trial and severely beaten for believing in the Savior.
Valentina from Caesarea interceded for the sisters in faith. Firmilian ordered her to go to a pagan temple and make a sacrifice to the Gods. However, Valentina threw a stone into the sacrificial fire and turned her back to it. For such insolence towards the Gods, the maiden was sentenced to death.
Death of the Great Martyr
For non-worship of the pagan Gods, they decided to execute Valentina of Caesarea. At first the woman was tortured: she was beaten half to death. At the end of the torture, at the order of the ruler, the saint's head was cut off with a sword. The same fate befell the sisters in faith, Paul and Hennath. Before her death, Valentina thanked God for everything that befell her. The woman did not renounce the Savior and humbly accepted execution from her tormentors.
Icons of St. Valentine
Now it is clear what significance Saint Valentine has in Orthodoxy, what the Great Martyr is asked for and in what cases Christians fall before her icon.
Since the Benefactor always defended her faith in the Lord and did not abandon it even when she was threatened with death, people can safely turn to her to bestow courage, boldness, and determination.
The saint comes to the aid of those who are planning to start some important business
Saint Valentine also comes to the aid of those who are planning to start some important business. If a person is haunted by life’s difficulties, then the Great Martyr will never leave the one asking in trouble.
In addition, the Holy Martyr Valentine comes to the aid of the sick. Even those who have been diagnosed with a fatal disease can bow before her face.
If a person’s faith is weakening and his head is filled with tempting thoughts, then in this case you can also turn to the image of Valentina. She will tell you where to go, strengthen faith in God and protect you from troubles, despair, grief and misfortune.
How to Pray Saint
It is better to contact the martyr Valentina through her icon. It is known that images of Saints are conductors between the earthly world and the Kingdom of God. Therefore, if you want your prayer to be heard and Valentina to come to your aid faster, you need to buy her icon in the temple.
It is better to contact the martyr Valentina through her icon
You can read the petition both at home and in church. The position of the body does not matter. The main thing is that the words of prayer come from the heart. There should not be any extraneous thoughts.
It’s good if you put a lit church candle in front of the icon. The room should be quiet and calm when addressing Valentina.
It’s good if you put a lit church candle in front of the icon
One should not turn to Saint Valentine of Caesarea if a person is pursuing negative goals or wants a wish to be fulfilled. Higher powers always feel the purpose of prayers.
Description
Vera of Rome is one of the three daughters of Saint Sophia. A pious widow with daughters named after the main Christian virtues: Faith, Hope and Love, lived in the second century in Rome. Being a deeply religious person herself, Sophia raised her daughters in the love of God and the willingness to give up everything earthly for His sake. The rumor about the pious family reached the Emperor Hadrian himself, an ardent persecutor of Christians, and he wished to see them in person. Surprised by their fearless confession of the True God, he instructed one pagan woman to teach the children the pagan faith. All his efforts were in vain, their faith remained unshakable. Then the emperor ordered the children to be tortured. They were beaten, placed on a hot grate, and dipped in boiling resin, but the torture brought almost no harm to the young women. Having achieved nothing, they were beheaded with a sword. The mother of the martyrs, Sophia, was not subjected to physical torture, but they doomed her to even more severe mental torment of separation from her children. The sufferer buried the remains of her daughters and remained at their grave for two days until the Lord took her soul to himself. Thus, the great spiritual power of the martyrs appeared to us, who, through their fiery faith, were strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit and through torment won crowns for themselves in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Prayer to Saint Valentine
The words of the prayer can be read at any time of the day. It is better to memorize the petition, or write it on a sheet of paper with your own hand and take it out when problems arise.
Here are the words of the prayer to the Great Martyr Valentina of Caesarea:
“Oh, long-suffering and wise martyr of Christ Valentino! Now, in honor of your holy memory, we, sinners and unworthy ones, diligently run to you and pray with the tenderness of our hearts. You loved the Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ more than all earthly blessings, and you faithfully followed Him through all your life, nourishing your soul with Divine grace. Ask us also for the grace that enlightens us, so that we may be overshadowed by it, in faith and piety, in the labors of chastity and love, and we may serve Christ in His neighbors without laziness. Pray that our Savior will vouchsafe us to complete our earthly journey without stumbling, and to end our life in peace and repentance, so that after living on earth, we will be vouchsafed eternal and blessed life in heaven, and there with you and with all the saints, together we will praise the Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible , and let us sing the One Divinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen".
Valentine the Great Martyr and her icon are venerated in the Orthodox Church in the month of July, on the 16th and 29th.
How to get rid of illnesses and obsession: prayer to Valentina Minskaya
The image of this saint came to us from Belarus. Valentina was born in May 1888, becoming one of the daughters of the priest Theodore Chernyavsky. The girls spent their childhood in the village of Koski on the river coast. This area is located not far from present-day Dzerzhinsk (in the old days the city was called Koidanovo).
After studying at the women's theological school, Valentina married Fyodor Sulkowski, an adviser to the Minsk district government. Her sisters became priests' wives. The young women hoped for a happy life, but fate had an unenviable fate in store for them. First, the arrested Fyodor Sulkowski goes to hard labor and dies there. The sisters' husbands die by shooting. Soon after these events, one misfortune gives way to another.
With the death of her parents, Valentina has no home left, since the government confiscated her father’s house and turned the building into a school. The church in which her father served burned down, and only the cross stood as a reminder of her. In order to somehow survive, the young woman settled in a church gatehouse with a cold earthen floor.
Severe stress and living in unfavorable conditions undermined Valentina’s health. She lay in bed for more than 30 years until she died in 1966. During this time, the woman acquired the gift of healing and divination. If you believe the legend, in a dream, Valentina Fedorovna was instructed to do good deeds by Ksenia of Petersburg herself, a holy, blessed person.
As residents of the villages included in the Minsk district recall, Mother Valentina never reproached fate, but she always supported other people, treated them, left a word for them before God, and guided them on the path of truth. The courtyard of the lodge-house was never empty, because people rushed to see Mother Valentina from all the surrounding areas.
People also knew about Valentina Minskaya’s gift of foresight. Often wives and mothers came to her, wanting to know if their husbands and sons who had gone to war were listed as dead. The seer always answered any questions accurately. Valentina could suddenly say a phrase that seemed strange to others. But subsequently some event occurred, and the residents of the Minsk district tied it to the saying of the seer.
For example, the sentence “A black bird flew over Moscow and fell” was expressed by Valentina on the eve of Stalin’s death. “Your father was killed,” the fortuneteller said to the boy, and he and his mother were indeed crying over the funeral a couple of days later. The throwaway “Sorry for the old man” predicted Kalinin’s death.
But the most interesting and incomprehensible for modern people remains how Valentina Minskaya predicted the death of the Kursk nuclear-powered icebreaker. During the years of her life, people could not interpret what it meant: “Kursk will go under water. The sailors will cry out for the help of the Almighty, but they will not be saved.” For humanity of that time, Kursk was only a city, and they had no idea what a nuclear-powered ship was. However, many years later the frightening prediction came true.
Prayer text
40 years after the death of the seer, namely on February 6, 2006, Valentina Chernyavskaya-Sulkovskaya was recognized as blessed and numbered among the saints of the Belarusian Orthodox Church.
Today believers turn to Valentina Minskaya asking for health and salvation from obsession.
Here are the words of this miraculous prayer:
“Oh, our blessed mother Valentina! Just as during your life you received all the suffering and weak, exhausted from sorrows and pains, and with your prayers you removed any ailments and misfortunes from them, so give us, who come to you now, the healing of the Lord. Do not allow us to fall into sin, but be sure to guide everyone on the path of salvation, wisdom and piety. Hear our words, Mother Valentina, and open the way for our prayers to the Throne of the Creator. And we will joyfully offer praise to the Most Holy Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let it be so from now on and forever. Amen".
Save it to your wall
>Icon. Holy Martyr Vera Wood, pigment paints, matte varnish >Origin
1875
Kept in the State Historical Museum.
Where to put the icon of St. Valentine
If possible, it is better to place the icon of Valentina of Caesarea, like all the others, on the eastern side. If difficulties arise with this, then it’s okay. You just need to find a visible and easily accessible place for her, where nothing will interfere with contacting Valentina.
It is better to place the icon of Valentina of Caesarea on the eastern side
It is also desirable that the icon be located away from televisions, computers, tape recorders and other equipment. You should not place various figurines, photographs, paintings next to it. In general, it is better to allocate a separate shelf for the image of Valentina, so that during prayer you will not be distracted by foreign objects.
Flowers must grow next to the face. The icon can also be decorated with a towel.
It is believed that images of Saints should not hang on walls
It is believed that images of Saints should not hang on walls; it is better to place them on a hard surface. It is allowed to place a lamp nearby, which can be lit during prayer, and on Sundays left burning until nightfall.
Valentine's name day according to the Orthodox calendar
Three times a year, women with this name celebrate this holiday. Name day is the day of remembrance of the saint whose name was given to a person at Baptism.
According to the church calendar, they fall on certain days:
- February 23 and July 23 – martyr Valentina of Caesarea (Palestinian), virgin;
- June 17 – Blessed Valentina Minskaya (Sulkovskaya).
Please note: name days should not be confused with Angel’s Day, which is celebrated on the day of a person’s Baptism, and name days fall on the day of remembrance of a saint.
