A shrine in Dublin that houses St. Valentine’s fragmentary bones has been frequented by couples wishing for good luck in love.
Bishop Denis Nulty blessed wedding bands for engaged couples at the shrine of St. Valentine in the Carmelite Church on Whitefriar Street.
At this time of year, pilgrims frequently visit the medieval church in the city center. Gavin and Patrick Corcoran, as well as Ilona Catharine Dorrepaal and Patrick Michael Lennon, two engaged couples, attended the church.
Valentine, who was then serving as a holy priest, is thought to have been tortured with clubs on February 14 around the year 270 AD before being killed for defying Emperor Claudius II, often known as “Claudius the Cruel.”
Claudius outlawed all marriages and engagements in an effort to solve the problem because he thought that Roman men were reluctant to join the army due to their great connection to their wives and families.
Realizing the injustice of the rule, Valentine defied Claudius and continued to secretly marry young lovers.
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St. Valentine was executed in Rome in the third century for refusing to forsake his Christian faith; his remains were given to an individual in Dublin; Irish preacher, Father John Spratt, by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836.
St Valentine’s shrine contains an alarmed casket enclosing a number of St Valentine’s bones and a vial of his blood complete with an altar and life-size statue. An inscription on the casket, or reliquary, reads: ‘This shrine contains the sacred body of Saint Valentinus the Martyr, together with a small vessel tinged with his blood.’
