LOVE SAINT RELICS COME TO MITCHELSTOWN

The Mitchelstown Carmelite Lourdes Group, which will this year celebrate its tenth anniversary, is making final preparations for the historic visit to the town of the relics of Saint Valentine.

The relics of the famous saint will be handed over in procession to the delegation of the Mitchelstown Carmelite Lourdes Group on Saturday, February 16 at Whitefriar St. in Dublin. They will be arriving in Mitchelstown’s Lower Cork Street at 3.30pm that evening with a procession to the Mitchelstown church, due to arrive at 4pm.

People can visit the relics between 4pm and 12 midnight on Saturday, 16 February and from 7am until after the 12pm Mass on Sunday, February 17. There will be a youth Mass at 7.30pm on Saturday, and also Masses at 8.30am, 10.30am and 12 noon on Sunday devoted to the relics, celebrated by the parish priest of Mitchelstown and the Carmelite priests. Blessed roses for St Valentine will be on sale for the occasion.

The Mitchelstown Carmelites are expecting big attendances for this historical event. St Valentine’s Day has roots in several different legends that have found their way to us through the ages. One of the earliest popular symbols of the Valentine’s day is Cupid, the Roman god of love, who is represented by the image of a young boy with bow and arrow.

Several theories surround the history of Valentine’s Day. Three hundred years after the death of Jesus Christ, the Roman emperors still demanded that everyone believe in the Roman gods. Valentine, a Christian priest, had been thrown in prison for his teachings.

On February 14 in either 269 or 270 AD, Valentine was beheaded, not only because he was a Christian, but also because he had performed a miracle. He supposedly cured the jailer’s daughter of her blindness. The night before he was executed, he wrote the jailer’s daughter a farewell letter, signing it ‘From Your Valentine’.

Another legend tells us that this same Valentine, well-loved by all, received notes to his jail cell from children and friends who missed him.

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