Happy Valentines Day!
I thought, with the day that’s in it, I’d talk about a weird and wonderful connection Ireland has with Valentines Day!
Valentines day falls on the feast day of Saint Valentines. The Legend goes that Valentine of Rome was imprisoned for preforming marriages of soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians. While in prison he is said to have cured the Jailer’s Daughter of blindness. Valentine of Rome was executed and it’s all a lovely story. Apparently the day wasn’t associated with love until a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned
“For this was on St. Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”
Anyway back to the Irish bit. So Valentine of Rome was executed for his Christian ways and was buried in Rome back in the third Century. A while later, in 1835, an Irish priest visiting Rome, apparently known for his preaching, managed to convince the pope at the time to give him a gift of the remains of Saint Valentine. I would have loved to have been in the room for that conversation! The remains were moved to Ireland where they still rest in White Friars Street Church in Dublin.
LaLaLander 