By Claire Corrigan
Sean Whelan from Ballinea and Deirdre Eighan from Rochfortbridge decided to do something unique to mark Valentine’s day this year. The pair, who are due to be married on 12 May, 2017, in St Michael’s Church, Castletown-Geoghegan, travelled to the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Whitefriar Street, to receive a special Valentine blessing on 9 February from Bishop Denis Nulty, previously curate at the Cathedral in Mullingar.
The blessing of the engaged couple took place at the Shrine of Saint Valentine where Holy relics of Saint Valentine are interred in the Carmelite Church in Whitefriar Street, Dublin. Saint Valentine, a priest in ancient Rome, is regarded as the patron saint of couples in love, preparing for marriage and of married life. According to tradition, Saint Valentine was martyred on 14 February, 250 AD. In 1836, relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina, near Rome, were identified with Saint Valentine. These relics were placed in a casket, donated by Pope Gregory XVI, and transported to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin where they continue to be venerated by the faithful to this day.
Bishop Nulty said of the blessing, “I was so delighted that Deirdre and Sean were the couple whose engagement ring I blessed at the Shrine of Saint Valentine. I was very taken by where they first met – in their Repeat Leaving Cert class at Coláiste Mhuire CBS, Mullingar, the school where I was chaplain in my first appointment as a priest in Mullingar. I think society is always interested in where a couple meet, where love first blossoms. Society should also be very interested in the key findings of counselling trends that ACCORD have published this week.”
Bishop Nulty serves as national chairman of ACCORD, the Church’s marriage advisory and support agency. ACCORD helps to prepare couple for marriage. It also offers a professional counselling service, facilitating couples and individuals to explore, reflect upon and work to resolve difficulties that arise in their marriages and relationships.
