The story of St. Valentine is pretty gruesome. In 270 AD he was working as a priest in Rome. The Emperor Claudius II was in power, remembered as ‘Claudius the Cruel’. Roman men were not joining the army when they were married, they cherished the attachment of their wives and families. Claudius II banned all marriages and engagements to get rid of this problem. Valentine realized this injustice and defied Claudius II by continuing to perform marriages in secret for young lovers.

On the 14th February around 270 AD, on the instructions of Claudius II, Valentine was confronted by a group of men who attacked him with clubs and then beheaded him. His martyred remains were buried in Rome. The Catholic Church canonized him in 1537.

Enter the Irishman Fr John Spratt in the early 1800s. A powerful preacher in Rome whose reputation had reached Pope Gregory XVI. After one of his sermons at a church in Rome where the Pope was present to hear Fr Spratt speak, the Pope was so impressed that he gifted him with St. Valentine’s remains. The priest carried the remains back with him to Dublin in 1836, where he in turn gifted them to Whitefriars church. Included was a letter from Pope Gregory XVI proving their authenticity. The remains had a Shrine and a statue erected in the church in the 1950s. The Catholic Church had an enormous following at that time and as word spread of this Shrine, people venerated it from all over Ireland, especially on the Saint’s patron day, the 14th February. As the tourism business became popular in Ireland, thousands of young and indeed, not so young people began to gather on his feast day in Whitefriars Street Church in memory of the Saint of Love. On a walking tour of Dublin this church is sometimes included.