St Valentine's Ashes

Being St Valentine's Day AND Ash Wednesday what could be more appropriate than a casket holding the ashes of St Valentine!

These relics of the saint are  in the church of Blessed John Duns Scotus in the Gorbals area of Glasgow.  Apparently its quite common for couples to turn up at the church on February 14th to propose in front of the casket, although I've blipped it a few times and no one else has ever been there.

Beside the casket today were some leaflets giving background information on how the ashes came to be here and a few other interesting facts about the St Valentine's Day tradition.  One of these is the fact that 'X ' wasn't originally a symbol for a kiss, but was actually the St Andrew's Cross which appeared on contracts to signify honesty and trustworthiness and both parties would kiss the document near the 'X' so it eventually became associated with a kiss.

Interestingly it also points out that 14th February 's isn't Valentines Day at all but should  actually be 'Cyril and Methodius' Day (switched to July).   But asking someone to be your 'Cyril and Methodius' doesn't have the same romantic ring to it!