Statue of St Valentine on his shrine in Whitefriar Street Church (Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), Dublin.  Information about Valentine has been described as ‘unreliable’, but according to a leaflet about the Church’s shrines he was ‘a third century Roman martyr’, whose relics were given to the Irish Carmelite priest John Spratt, by Pope Gregory XVI when he received a papal audience in 1835.  The statue depicts the Saint ‘in the red vestments of a martyr and holding a crocus in his hand’.  According a leaflet available in the Church in 2005:

The crocus which flowers around this time is in some places known as St Valentine’s flower.  A well known legend tells that he used to make the present of a flower from his own garden to young visitors.  Two of these young people fell in love, and were so happy that many others followed that example … and still do.’

However, although the statue has been studied on several occasions, no crocus seems to be visible.

Photographed 21 September 2026