Meet the real St Valentine, or is it?

Meet Saint Valentine. The original one, as far as Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin is concerned.Many in Malta would disagree.

Valentine was a priest in ancient Rome, and executed in the third century for performing Christian marriages. He was buried in Rome, but in 1835 an Irish Carmelite priest, John Spratt, so impressed and charmed Pope Gregory XVI that he was allowed to take Saint Valentine's remains back home as a gift for his home parish.

Forgotten for over a century, a shrine and statue in honour of Valentine were finally built in the 1950s. A steady stream of locals and visitors alike pray there for help in their amorous quests.

Of course, many disagree with that account.

For, St Valentine is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose 'feas't is on February 14 however, nothing is really known except for his name and that he was buried at Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is moreover uncertain whether this feast celebrates the one or more saints by the same name.

BALZAN'S CLAIM TO ST VALENTINE

There is also a connection in Malta.

At Balzan, although the 17th century parish church is dedicated to the Annunciation of Our Lady, the parish also celebrates the feast of St Valentine. The village radio statio also used to be called Radio Valentine.

The reliquary of St Valentine currently found at the Balzan Parish Church - within St Michael's altar - was brought to Malta by Mgr. Antonio Grech Delicata (1823-1876) in 1784. It was previously conserved in St Helen's cemetery, ad duas lauras (of the two laurel trees) in Rome.

Mgr Grech Delicata, resided with his family in Balzan and donated the remains of St Valentine to the parish church of Balzan on January 26, 1820. He later paid 200 scudi to dress the corpse in gold and silver lame.

With the passing of years, the devotion to the saint grew, and in the 19th century, his feast was the cause of much celebration, especially after St Valentine was declared the second patron saint of the village. Consequently, several parishioners named their children Valent or Valentina.