Remembering St Janani Luwum - The metaphor of Africa's unsung icons!

Details of the man Valentine’s Day is named after are contested. Two men are listed, the first a Roman priest and the second a bishop. One thing is agreed upon: he was martyred on February 14th. As conflated biographies circulate the most appealing is one of an arrest for the crime of secretly marrying Christian couples, who were being persecuted by Emperor Claudius II in the 3rd Century AD.

St Valentine was imprisoned and later beheaded. The martyr was buried at Roman Cemetery on Via Flaminia, the ancient road that dissects Italy from Rome to Rimini.