Where is Saint Valentine now?

 

Chocolates, flowers, and affectionate notes. A beheading and body parts scattered across Europe. Together, these add up to one thing: The world’s largest festival of love.

Behind the rosy facade of Valentine’s Day is a mysterious and grisly tale of martyrdom, dismemberment, historical uncertainty, reliquaries, pilgrimage, and a dash of destination marketing.

As the murky legend goes, in the third century a Catholic martyr was executed on February 14, supposedly for breaking a Roman ban on performing marriages. In his surprisingly active afterlife, the man became a well-traveled saint, as Ronan O’Connell reports.

“In Dublin a church claims to exhibit St. Valentine’s heart; in a Rome basilica his supposed skull is displayed (pictured above); in a Glasgow friary his skeleton sits in a golden box; in a Prague basilica his shoulder bone is an attraction; and in a Madrid church his remains are encased in glass,” writes O’Connell. “All in all, a dozen Catholic churches in Europe trade heavily on their claimed ownership of the remains of this celebrity saint.”

A weary pilgrim might ask: How can there be so many bones? Historians have theories. His legend is probably a mélange of the lives of several Italian holy men named Valentine, and likely none of them actually inspired the annual lovers’ celebration, according to Lisa Bitel, a professor of religion and history at the University of Southern California and one of the world’s leading experts on St. Valentine.

“The Vatican doesn’t take a position on bodies,” she says. “The church leadership pretty much let the acquisition and use of relics go on without much regulation. It brought customers into churches, pilgrims to town, and money into church coffers. Theologians and others were critical from the start about the trade in relics, beginning with [Saint] Augustine, if not before. People knew relic traders sold fakes. But people also were willing to believe saints could provide relics in miraculous proportions, so that many churches could claim to have a particular saint’s body.”

Relics are good for faith-seekers—and for business. Which doesn’t necessarily mean they are inauthentic, but they are certainly sought after by many, including travelers.

In Dublin, countless saint-seekers descend on a majestic cathedral named after Ireland’s patron, Saint Patrick. Far fewer sojourn to the nearby Whitefriar Street Church (pictured above), where Valentine’s heart still beats (metaphorically) in a wooden chest. Tour guide Alan Byrne says the remains are well known among locals but absent from the city’s tourist trail.

“Maybe St. Valentine needs an Instagram account to attract more visitors to this church,” he jokes. Indeed, if the Saint’s on social media next week, he’ll be in good company.