St Valentine’s bones can be found in a Catholic Church in Glasgow
The bones of St Valentine can be found in Blessed John Duns Scotus church in Glasgow
Transcript
00:00 His heart was taken to Dublin, his skull is in Rome and I believe it's his spine in Glasgow.
00:08 So Saint Valentine, whom we have here, was a third century saint and we have some of his relics in Glasgow, which is quite interesting.
00:16 These specific relics ended up in the hands of a very wealthy French Catholic family over time.
00:23 In 1868 they were brought to Glasgow originally and they stayed in a different location in Glasgow for over 100 years.
00:30 They take all their wee bits for holiness, healing purposes and spread them all over.
00:37 Usually churches will fight or kind of disagree with each other as to who's got the true relic,
00:42 but in the case of Saint Valentine everybody seems to be happy with having their own respective wee bits.
00:47 It's rumoured that there was not actually one Saint Valentine, there was loads of holy men in the area that went by the name of Valentine.
00:54 So after he died and his relics were sought after, his heart was taken to Dublin, his skull is in Rome and I believe it's his spine in Glasgow.
01:07 We know that he must have ministered in some way to persecuted Christians,
01:11 because at the time Christianity wasn't as widespread as it is now, wasn't as legal as it is now.
01:18 But his reputation for being the patron of courtly love is because as part of his role to minister to persecuted Christians that would have been marriage as well.
01:29 So marrying people in secret is something that he would have been known for doing quite a lot.
01:37 It is unknown exactly where the custom of exchanging greetings on the 14th of February comes from,
01:43 and there are even some records to suggest that it predates Saint Valentine's life.
01:48 The only real connection with the act of giving a valentine and the man himself is that the date it falls is that of his death.
01:56 And while these origins aren't quite clear, what is apparent is that they are now forever inextricably linked.
02:03 My valentine is my girlfriend Kirsty, she's an artist, a very good artist, she's a musician and she's just very wonderful and kind and sweet.
02:13 We'll be going out for a wee dinner, a wee walk, maybe see the pictures, your usual stuff.
02:20 Glasgow friary, rose covered chest, valentine's forearm, came here to rest.
02:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]