We visited St Valentine’s bones in a Glasgow church - here’s what we found out
We travelled to the Gorbals to visit the remains of Saint Valentine’s and find out just how he ended up in Glasgow - 1500 miles away from his head
Saint Valentine, the third-century patron saint of the Italian city of Terni, epilepsy and beekeepers - and of course, Valentine’s Day - but how did the 1752-year-old bones of a Roman saint end up in the Gorbals?
The saint's annual feast day, February 14, Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love and to share gifts with your significant other, but exactly why is Saint Valentine associated with love?
To find out more about the story, we went right to the source - that’s right, we have a piece of Valentine right here in Glasgow - at Blessed John Duns Scotus, a Catholic Church in the Gorbals.
The bones were moved there in 1993 from the nearby St Francis’ Chapel, also in the Gorbals, where they sat in relative anonymity for around 100 years after being shipped over from Europe by monks who were supposedly impressed with the strength of faith in Glasgow.
On Valentine’s Day, the wooden box adorned with gold plated letters that read ‘Corpus Valentini Martyris’ [the Body of the martyr Valentine] will be decorated with flowers, as it is every year.
About 1500 miles away in the city of Rome, St Valentine’s skull sits inside a gilded box - embellished with a crown of flowers, we hope he doesn’t miss his old bones too much.
For the full story behind St Valentine’s remains and how they found themselves in Glasgow - check out our report from Blessed John Duns Scotus in the Gorbals, which can be found at the top of this article!