Whitefriar Street Church, Dublin — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Whitefriar Street Church holds one of the most unexpected relics in Christendom: the bones and a vessel of blood attributed to Saint Valentine, the patron saint of lovers. How the remains of a 3rd-century Roman martyr ended up in a Dublin church is a story worth telling.

In 1835, Father Francis John Spratt, the Irish Carmelite who built the original church, traveled to Rome. His eloquent preaching so impressed Pope Gregory XVI that the Pope gifted him the relics of Saint Valentine as a mark of esteem. On December 27, 1835, the saint's remains were removed from the cemetery of St Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina. Nearly a year later, on November 10, 1836, the reliquary arrived in Dublin in solemn procession and was received by Archbishop Murray.

After Father Spratt's death, the relics went into storage for decades. It was not until the church's restoration in the 1950s that a proper shrine was created, featuring an altar and a statue of St. Valentine holding a crocus, carved by sculptor Irene Broe.

Today, couples visit from around the world to pray at the shrine and ask Saint Valentine to watch over their relationships. On February 14th, the church becomes especially busy with ceremonies, blessings, and visitors marking the connection between this quiet Dublin street and the universal celebration of love.

A Questo quest through Dublin's lesser-known treasures can lead you to this surprising shrine, where a pope's gift turned a neighborhood church into an international pilgrimage site.