Saint Valerian?

[FiereMargriet]

This is not exactly a pressing question, but is Valerian (St. Cecilia of Rome's fiance) considered a saint? I figured most if not all of the early Christians who suffered martyrdom were considered as such, but I've never heard him or his brother described as a saint. I guess there's no definitive teaching, but is there any sort of general consensus?

[StColette]

[quote name='FiereMargriet' post='1857411' date='May 4 2009, 10:04 AM']This is not exactly a pressing question, but is Valerian (St. Cecilia of Rome's fiance) considered a saint? I figured most if not all of the early Christians who suffered martyrdom were considered as such, but I've never heard him or his brother described as a saint. I guess there's no definitive teaching, but is there any sort of general consensus?[/quote]


Many of the sources that I've read regarding St. Cecilia have Valerian as her actual spouse, not just as her fiance. I know that Valerian and his brother were martyred a few days before St. Cecilia. That's about all I know of him. We must keep in mind that there was not a uniformed process of canonization back around the time of St. Cecilia's death. Many of the earlier Saints were given the title of Saint because of popular demand. It was often at the request of the people that someone was called a Saint. For instance, think of the example of John Paul the Great. He has not been proclaimed "the Great" by the Church official but the people refer to him quite often in this manner. So it could be simply the case that the demand for his Sainthood was not there like it was for St. Cecilia.

Ewtn has a great little article on her and it speaks about Valerian quite a bit. [url="http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/SCECILIA.htm"]http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/SCECILIA.htm[/url]

Patron Saint Index at Catholic forums calls him St. Valerian

[url="http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/ps4g06.htm"]http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/ps4g06.htm[/url]

Catholic Culture calls him a Saint as well

[url="http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?id=327"]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/lit.../day.cfm?id=327[/url]