Saint Valentine

About Saint Valentine

Saint Valentine was a 3rd-century Roman Catholic priest and martyr, believed to have been executed under Emperor Claudius II around 273 AD. While the historical specifics of his life are heavily intertwined with legend, his primary cultural impact stems from his supposed clandestine marriage of Christian couples despite imperial prohibition, which later cemented his association with romance and the modern holiday bearing his name. This perceived contribution to religious and romantic tradition is sufficient for MIT's Pantheon project to rank him at #693 in overall historical importance among approximately 15,000 figures.

Despite this relatively high historical ranking, the internet attention for Saint Valentine in 2025 appears disproportionate to his historical weight. He garnered 854K annualized Wikipedia views, placing him in a category of significant overattention, indicated by a +3x Attention Gap. To put this in context, he attracts considerably more modern interest than figures like Pope Urban VII (#422 importance), who saw fewer than 100K views, or Juan Carlos I of Spain (#437 importance), despite them being historically ranked much higher.

This elevated online interest seems to be waning, however, as his Wikipedia traffic saw a -4.5% year-over-year decline. Furthermore, his quarterly momentum from Q1 to Q3 of 2025 was notably negative at -91%, suggesting that the seasonal spike around February 14th fades quickly in the rest of the year, leading to declining overall engagement.