Problem
After reading the Wikipedia article on St Valentine, there were so many saints called St Valentine and so many places associated with him that I can't remember any.
Answer
Simplify the whole thing with bullet points. I can't find them in blogger so I shall use stars.
Story
I first heard that St Valentine was associated with Italy which actually has his supposed relics, when I went to a promotion for Umbria and adjacent Tuscany, at a hotel in London. I was later invited on a press strip to Umbria, which I loved, all those little hilltop towns which from a distance remind you of Medieval paintings from the National Gallery in London and picture books. I saw several wonderful places associated with St Francis of Assisi (who was born and buried in Assisi but is in paintings or visited places all around Umbria). If I ever go back, either on a press trip, or on my own, I shall try to include St Valentine on my trip.
I was puzzled for a long time by the number of places which claim to have relics of famous people and saints. When I went to Greece, the mystery was solved. A guide showed us a chapel which had the body of the holy person. A few hours or days later we visited another place, with a relic of the same person. I challenged the guide about this. She explained that when a person deemed holy is buried in or under of beside a holy place, that is then a place which becomes consecrated (blessed and deemed an official holy place by one of the designated officials of the church.) The mother church is the one which has the association with or body of the deceased saint who did good works or miracles during his or her life or after death. When another church is established, nearby or in a far off place, a fragment of the bones is taken to the new holy place. Since a body has numerous bones, this can go on for a long while, with many spin offs. That explains why one place has the head and another has the body. It is not a bizarre accident. It is the system.
Dividing Skeletons and Souvenirs?
The ideas of dividing up the body of a saint, or anybody, makes me frown and raise my eyebrows.
No!
For those of us accustomed to the idea that a body should be intact, (either ready to be resurrected in one piece, or because a body should not be tampered with, or suspicion that something awful happened to the living person if the skeleton is separated,) it sounds weird.
Yes, please!
On the other hand, I understand the desire to keep anything related to a deceased person. You want to save their hat, their clothes, their letters, record their words, keep their own treasured items, including the body and the bones. Yes, for those of us accustomed to the idea that everybody, whether family or friends, should share a cake or souvenir, split a dinner service or fortune between each of three children or between children and grandchildren, the idea of splitting a body between the buildings and people is logical and makes sense.
So the church or temple with just the finger, or the skull, or the heart, or the head, in whatever religion, is following a tradition of spreading the goodwill, from any part of the holy person, or anything they touched.
Here's a map of Italy showing Umbria.
* St Valentine was in Italy, in Terni, which has his relic.
Tips
Great simplified version of the story here:
http://www.deliciousitaly.com/lazio-rome-itineraries/origin-of-saint-valentine-s-day
https://www.umbriatourism.it
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker
