Valentine's Day century. Popular modern sources claim links to unspecified Greco-Roman February holidays alleged to be devoted to fertility and love to St. Valentine's Day, but prior to Chaucer in the 14th century, there were no links between the saints named Valentinus and romantic love. In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia, observed February 13–15, was an archaic rite connected to fertility. Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome. The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning "Juno the purifier" or "the chaste Juno", was celebrated on February 13–14. Pope Gelasius I (492–496) abolished Lupercalia. Some researchers have theorized that Gelasius I
Roman Catholic Diocese of Smolensk above Mohilev, which would merged into the Diocese of Minsk and promoted to Metropolitan Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev at the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, so as to cover independent Belarus. Roman Catholic Diocese of Smolensk The Roman Catholic Diocese of Smolensk was a Latin Catholic diocese in a large part of the Czarist Russian empire from 1636 till 1818. On 1 September 1636, the Roman Rite bishopric was established on Russian imperial territory, till then virgin to the Catholic church. The see rather often served as a stepstone to be transferred to other bishoprics, notaby in Lithuania. On 15 April