Searching for love in St. Valentine’s Dublin
As the shops begin to fill up with heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and red roses, MALCOLM ROGERS casts his eye over the figure who became the patron saint of love — St. Valentine.
THESE days, St. Valentine’s commerciality is in danger of making Christmas look positively religious by comparison. And needless to say, the tourist office in Dublin wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t see the commercial possibilities inherent in the fact that our capital is the last resting place of the Saint
of Love.
Some of mythology’s great love stories are based in Dublin — Tristan and Isolde gave Chapelizod its name, and Diarmuid and Gráinne had links with Howth.
But it is the city’s association with Valentine which elects it the world’s Capital of Love. The remains of the saint rest in a casket held at Whitefriar Street Church on Aungier Street — and very admirably not one single sign outside the religious establishment proclaims the presence of the bones.
No big red neon heart announces the site of St. Valentine’s final resting place, no interactive digital display welcomes you to his heritage centre. Well done!
Inside, the admirable lack of ceremony continues. The casket containing St. Valentine’s remains is itself a modest affair and has apparently never been opened. However documents of authentication and a papal seal verify the contents.
But how does it happen that St. Valentine ended up in Dublin?
First it has to be pointed out that rival claims on the location of his remains do exist. But most historians accept the remains were passed on as a gift from Pope Gregory XVI to the respected Dublin Carmelite Father John Spratt for services rendered to the Pope. Since 1836 they have been kept in the Dublin church’s marble altar.
The reasons behind St. Valentine’s elevation to the universal symbol for love is not a simple story. In the Catholic Encyclopaedia several Saint Valentines are mentioned in the early martyrologies. Of the three specifically associated with February one is described as a priest in Rome, another as a Bishop of Interamna (now Terni in Italy), and the other lived and died in Africa.
However, it’s the Bishop of Interamna who seems to be our man. This Valentine was martyred in AD270. His persecutor was Roman official Placidus Furius who was angered by Valentine’s practice of secretly marrying young couples. This greatly displeased the official because married men make poor soldiers.
The so-called friend of lovers was summoned to the emperor’s palace where Claudius attempted to show him the error of his ways — and in the process converted him away from Christianity and towards the Roman gods. But Valentine refused to renounce his beliefs and was duly executed on February 14. Legend has it that while languishing in jail before his execution he fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer and miraculously restored her sight.
Before he was beheaded he wrote her a note and signed it: “From your Valentine”.
Whatever the reasons for the execution the important thing is the date — February 14. It was already the day of a pagan Europe-wide festival called Lupercalia. This was celebrated in grand style with the Romans carrying out fertility rites on this day invoking their goddess Februa. Thus the cult of St. Valentine’s was latched on to this hedonistic celebration.
St. Valentine’s Day is now a day which has been observed over two millennia — longer than Easter. But the practice of spending a fortune on cards or expensive chocolates and flowers to your loved ones arrived much later. Some historians date the customs back to the Middle Ages when it was associated with the mating season of birds.
Chaucer even wrote about it in his Parliament of Fowls:
“For this was sent on Seynt Volantynys day,
Whan euery bird cometh ther to choose his match”.
Shakespeare also mentioned the day in the 16th century in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
“Good morrow friends. Saint Valentine is past;
Begin these wood-birds to couple now?”
The first Valentine’s card proper was probably sent in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was held prisoner in the Tower of London.
But it wasn’t until the 16th century that cupids and hearts starting appearing on cards.
More suggestive verse and the penchant of restaurateurs to treble the price of a meal on Valentine’s night are both recent developments.
|
