Our Dub, Your Valentine

I didn't have a clue.The relics of St. Valentine are in here in Dublin, resting in a church not more than 600 meters from my apartment. Really.With mass at the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church beginning at 3:00pm, I slipped out of work for a really late lunch. Bread and wine anyone?The church was surprisingly full for a Friday afternoon. A line of about 20 stretched out from the right transept, leading to the Shrine of St. Valentine. I joined the line feeling somewhat like a pilgrim, having come so many thousands of miles to reach this destination. Pilgrims, the original tourists?As the line moved slowly forward, I noticed that people were writing in a simple black book at the altar.  It was a prayer book, yes, but the prayers were written more like love letters to Valentine. I quickly scanned the open pages, then left my call for love. When in Rome...Of course, I wanted to know more about what I had just participated in. Prior Fr Brian McKay gave the Irish Examiner this explanation of the story of St. Valentine:

Valentine was a priest in Rome at the time of the Emperor Claudius. Now, Claudius was very insistent that the Roman Empire would spread and dominate the world, so he gave an edict that all young men were to abstain from marriage, so that they would be available, strong and able in that service.Valentine, however, felt that what Claudius wanted was very much at variance with the Christian faith, which espouses the sacrament of marriage. So Valentine clandestinely began to get couples together.

His punishment for such disobedience was decapitation. His final act was healing a blind girl with a note that said "From your Valentine." And that, as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story.