ON ST. VALENTINE, ROMAN MARTYR, AT HAMES AND ERMENTIERE IN BELGIUM.
CommentaryValentine, Roman Martyr, at Hames and Ermentiere in Belgium (St.)
By G. H.
[1] Two sacred bodies, to which the name of Valentine the Martyr was inscribed, the body of St. Valentine the Martyr at Ghent were brought to Belgium, having been elevated at Rome from subterranean chapels. One of these had rested in the cemetery of St. Cyriaca and is now venerated at Ghent in the church of the Society of Jesus on the second Sunday after Easter, having first been exposed for public veneration in the year 1651, when that Sunday fell on the 23rd of April, under which date we shall give the authentic documents. another at Hames in Hainaut The other body of St. Valentine the Martyr was obtained by the Most Excellent Lord Louis, Count of Egmont, in the year 1623 from Gregory XV, from the walls of the cemetery of St. Lawrence on the Via Flaminia, and was first deposited in a venerable place in the chapel of his castle at Hames in Hainaut, near the town of Ath, where it also became renowned for miracles; and when invoked as a helper, it was especially of aid and assistance to those suffering from hernias. So writes Raissius in his Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, page 238. It was venerated there on the 14th of February, on which day certain relics of St. Valentine are now displayed in the church of the said village of Hames, not without a concourse of the people. now brought to Ermentiere But the remaining body was transferred to Ermentiere, a town of French Flanders on the river Lys, and is preserved in the monastery of St. Bridget.