The building of St. Trinity’s Oratory in Sassocorvaro does not stand out of the others on the narrow road where it rises and one could not notice it at all. Its inside too does not show peculiarities capable of calling one’s attention. And yet, a surprise awaits its visitors. The Oratory, in fact, is better known as St. Valentine’s because it keeps a relic of the saint patron of lovers.
A relic that origins a long controversy with the city of Terni, since Sassocorvaro challenges the authenticity of the saint’s remains cherished there. Careful investigations show that the authentic relics are in Sassocorvaro, as Valentine’s path to get there from Rome is well documented.
The saint’s story melts with legend: it tells that he offered a rose from his garden, which became a pledge of eternal love, to each young couple who visited him. The fame of this patron of lovers grew to the point that innumerable couples came from all over Italy to get his blessing, so that Valentine had to choose a single day to bestow it. The chosen date, however, was not February 14, which is instead the day when the saint was brutally killed in 273.
The presence of this most precious relic gives Sassocorvaro a unique atmosphere filled with romanticism and passion. St. Valentine’s is the jewel on the crown of a hamlet which by its own nature is permeated with romance and offers itself to lovers as the ideal place for walking hand in hand, holding each other tight on its narrow alleys, embracing, their gaze gets lost into the poetic landscape of lake Mercatale and of the whole Montefeltro.
Sassocorvaro