Part of his remains Valentine’s Day they are located in Mytilini, the capital of Lesvos, and are kept in the Catholic church of Fragoklisia in the central market of the city.
Specifically, according to ERT, on February 14, 273 AD. Saint Valentine was slaughtered and his remains were buried in the catacombs of Saint Priscilla in Rome. From there, we meet them again in 1815 which are certified to be of Saint Valentine and part of them were donated to a nobleman in Mytilini. In 1907 they were donated to the Catholic Church. The remains were forgotten and in 1990 the last monk of Fragoklisia moved them to Athens with extreme secrecy.
Then, the relics of St. Valentine returned to Mytilini in 2014, after the Catholic Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary was renovated, and every year a service and litany is held in the streets of the city.
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Who was Saint Valentine?
Saint Valentine was a priest in Rome and helped Christians who were victims of persecution in the region. He was martyred and buried in a Christian cemetery on the Via Flaminia near Ponte Milvio in northern Rome on February 14, which has been celebrated as Valentine’s Day since 496 AD. His remains are kept in the Church and Catacombs of Saint Valentine (Catacombe di San Valentino), which remained an important place of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages, until the transfer of his relics to the church of Santa Praxede (Agia Praxidis) in the pontificate of Nicholas IV.
The flower-covered skull of Saint Valentine is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmetin in Rome, while other relics were moved to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, where they remain to this day. This area is a popular staging area, especially on February 14, for those looking for love. According to Professor Jack B. Oratz of the University of Kansas, the Saint Valentine of Rome, like the Saint Valentine of Terni, are “abstractions of the deeds of two saints found in almost every monastery in Europe.”
In the Anglican and Lutheran Churches, Saint Valentine is celebrated on February 14. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine is celebrated on July 6. In 1969 the Roman Catholic Church removed him from the General Roman Catholic Calendar, leaving his liturgical celebration to the local calendars, although the use of the – pre-1970 – calendars is permitted. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes him as a saint and mentions him in the February 14 entry in the Roman Catholic Martyrology.
Saint Valentine’s body was buried in the year 270 in the catacombs of Saint Priscilla. Since then, the whereabouts of the remains remained unknown, until the tomb was uncovered in 1815 and the relic was donated to a priest. Then the traces of the relics disappear and reappear in 1907 in Mytilene. Since then, the bones of Saint Valentine rested in the Catholic Church, known to all as “Frankoklisia”, on Ermou Street, under the Holy Altar.
The next “change” took place in 1990, when the remains of Saint Valentine were transferred by the then vicar of the Catholic Church of Mytilene, Franciscan monk Father Torquato Morini, since in the absence of a Church crew he no longer resided on the island, but in Athens and occasionally it also served Mytilene. Then, the remains were placed in the chapel of the Capuchin Order, dedicated to Saints Francis and Clare, at 7 Guilfordou Street in Victoria Square in Athens.
On February 12, 2009, part of the relics were exhumed by the Catholic Archbishop of Athens Mr. Nikolaos, a special official document of this act was signed, in the presence of the priestly head of the Chapel of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, Capuchin Friar Father Gabriel Rigetto and they were handed over to the archbishop of Naxos, Tinos, Andros and Mykonos in his capacity as Apostolic Superintendent of the Catholic Diocese of Chios, in order to bring them back to Mytilini.