To the secular world, St. Valentine is synonymous with cards, chocolates and lavish gifts of roses to mark this saint’s day.  

But for the prior of Dublin’s Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Shrine of St. Valentine, the saint has a broader important significance to Catholics in understanding and celebrating the sacrament of marriage — with all of its joys and challenges. 

 “Our vocation is to be the love at the heart of the Church, and it is important that we look at how we communicate that,” Carmelite Father James Eivers told the Register. 

Throngs of visitors are expected to visit the shrine on Feb. 14, and the priest wants them to know the Church’s view of marriage. 

 “The foundation of sacramental marriage is that vocation to love that God gives to married couples, supported through God’s grace, and the feast of St. Valentine is an opportunity to celebrate that love,” Father Eivers said.    

“Our primary overarching goal here in Whitefriar Street is to be a place of Christian welcome for people of faith, as well as people who are also searching,” he added. “The reality is that, on St. Valentine’s Day, there will be people of deep, committed faith coming here because of their desire to pray to St. Valentine because of the joy that they find in sacramental marriage — also because of the struggles that they face.”  

 “That’s the reality: You have people who are full of faith who come here because they are really struggling with their marriage, and it can be a very emotional experience coming here and praying when they know that their marriage is going through difficulties.” 

 He said other searching souls find their way to the church, too: “people who are searching.”  

“They are not sure; they may feel a little bit disenfranchised with the Church. They may be feeling spiritual but don’t identify with any particular church. The most important thing for us is that we communicate the love of God to them, that they know that they are welcome in a way that draws them into this community that we call the Church.”  

 Popular With Pilgrims 

Visitors throng the shrine every February feast day. The focal point of the day and the main event is the 3 o’clock Mass, where there is a blessing of rings for engaged or married couples and a renewal of vows. 

Margaret Gallagher, a layperson who works at Whitefriars as general manager, described the pilgrims, telling the Register, “From early morning, we will have a constant stream of people coming in. It’s a beautiful day here for us; it’s a busy day, but I have to say it is absolutely beautiful, in terms of its atmosphere and joyful spirit.” 

“We will have several thousand people of all ages coming through the door, from people of school age to people who have been married for 50 years or longer. It is kind of special,” she said. “It can be tinged with sadness, too, as we can have people who will arrive who may now be on their own because their lifelong partner has died. Coming here might have been something that they always used to do together.” 

Father Eivers agreed, “It is a busy day for us, but also a day that everyone who walks in through the door knows that they are welcome, knows that we understand the struggles that people go through, in terms of marriage, and also that there are supports there.” 

This week, Margaret Gleeson and Jimmy Moynihan went to St. Valentine’s shrine ahead of the big feast day to have their engagement blessed by Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin. Both widowed, the couple will wed in May.  

“I thank God for meeting my fiancé, Jimmy,” said Gleeson. “I’m privileged to be here with my fiancé to get the blessing of Bishop Nulty on our engagement,” she told TheJournal.ie news site. 

 Oasis of Peace and Prayer 

Described as an oasis of peace and prayer, for almost two centuries Whitefriars Chapel has been home to the relics of St Valentine, which Pope Gregory gifted to Irish Carmelite Father John Spratt in 1835 because of his inspirational sermons.  

Father Eivers reflected on the secular Valentine’s Day and the stereotypical representation juxtaposed with the saint, who paid the ultimate price for his faith in sacramental marriage when he was martyred.  

 “St. Valentine very much gets confused with that image of Cupid, the angelic cherub shooting his arrows; of chocolates and roses and dinners for two and all that romantic aspect of it. No one is saying that is not important — these things are — but St. Valentine and who he was gets diluted in this whimsical romantic note that we see around Feb. 14.”  

 “We know Valentine was a person: He was a priest, and he was martyred in the third century for marrying young people, secretly defying the prohibition from the emperor who wanted to conscript them,” the priest explained, in reference to Emperor Claudius II’s plan to fill his military ranks.  

The priest added, “Nearly every day in the Church year, we celebrate the life of a saint because they are role models for us, and we need heroes that inspire us and that encourage imitation. St. Valentine can be the saint that we look to when we think about sacramental marriage. Our secular society champions individualism, and people struggle so much with the idea of permanency.” 

 He encourages the young to look at the example of those who have long been married. “I met a couple the other day that were married for 62 years. Our world needs their faithful witness to married love. That’s what Valentine is really standing for, the importance of sacramental marriage and the importance of the permanency of marriage.” 

“We need the example of saints like Valentine, and we also need the example of these couples — these men and women who have dedicated their lives to each other, that have lived out the vocation that God has given them through sacramental marriage,” he stressed. “We need to see a love that is permanent, a love that is not something that can just come and go, a love that is more than emotion.”  

 He continued, “It’s hard work, and it’s all the struggles that can come with it.” 

And each February, he explained, “It makes sense we see people in our Church, people who are turning to Valentine for his intercession, people who are coming looking for love, people who are coming remembering a loved one who has died — this only makes sense through the power of God’s grace.”