The skull was discovered during an excavation of a catacomb that took place in Rome in the early 1800s; the dig yielded the skeletal remains and other relics that are now associated with St. Valentine.
Knowing just precisely whose skull it is, however, is muddled. For one thing, there was more than one Catholic holy person known as Saint Valentine. At that point there’s the around 1500 years between those saint’s demises and the eager circulation and naming of bodies in the Victorian time.
At long last, and most alarming, there is the way that no under ten spots guarantee to house the relics, all around the globe.
Little is truly known about the genuine man (or men) behind the legend. What is known (pretty much) is that something like two men by the name of Valentine (Valentinus) were known in Italy and passed on in the late third century, and a third Valentine was situated in North Africa around a similar time. The two Italians were covered along Via Flaminia.
As a holy person, Valentine previously increased genuine reputation in 496 when Pope Gelasius I made February 14, initially part of the Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a banquet day devoted to St. Valentine.
The accounts of the distinctive men appear to have converged into one after some time, with the greater part of the folklore about Valentine being a supporter of sweethearts, helping early Christian couples to wed covertly, just dating to the fourteenth century and the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
The congregation itself is exceptionally old, remaining on the site of an antiquated Roman sanctuary dating to the second century BC. A large portion of what you see today dates to the eighth and twelfth hundreds of years, including the tomb situated underneath the special stepped area.
The skull can be found in the side special raised area on the left half of the congregation. While you are at the Basilica of Santa Maria, stop by the porch to visit with the acclaimed Bocca della Verità (mouth of truth).
The controversy surrounding Valentine’s skull continues to play out, with many scholars disputing the provenance.
The Mouth of Truth / Bocca della Verità is a marble mask in Rome, Italy, which stands against the left wall of the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church, at the Piazza della Bocca della Verità, the site of the ancient Forum Boarium (the ancient cattle market). It attracts visitors who audaciously stick their hand in the mouth
The massive marble mask weighs about 1300 kg and probably depicts the face of the sea god Oceanus. The eyes, nostrils and mouth are open. Historians aren’t quite certain what the original purpose of the disc was. It was possibly used as a drain cover in the nearby Temple of Hercules Victor, which had an oculus—a round open space in the middle of the roof, similar to that of the Pantheon. Hence, it could rain inside. It is also thought that cattle merchants used it to drain the blood of cattle sacrificed to the god Hercules. In the thirteenth century the disc was probably removed from the temple and placed against the wall of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin. In the seventeenth century it eventually moved to its current location inside the portico of the church.
