Those starting out on the Pilgrims’ Way today 14 February can find a special association with St Valentine in both Winchester and Southwark.

On the edge of Winchester, the PW passes through Hyde Abbey where the head of St Valentine was to be found in the church. This most important relic had been given by Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, and featured on the abbey seal .

The local celebration was prolonged with a St Valentine Octave observed until 21 February.

Meanwhile in Southwark Cathedral there is the colourful tomb of John Gower.

His Ballades ‘Saint Valentin l’amour et la nature’ and ‘Saint Valentin, plus qe null Emperour’, written about 1390, make him one of the first to suggest Valentine has a connection with love and birds choosing a mate on this day.

About the same time his friend Geoffrey Chaucer in his Parliament of Foules writes ‘…this was on Seynt Valentyne’s day/Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate’.

William Shakespeare, who knew Southwark Cathedral where his brother is buried, takes up Chaucer’s suggestion of birds mating at this time in A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Theseus says:

‘Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?’

In Hamlet Ophelia in sings:

‘Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.’

Shakespeare can be said to have helped make popular the idea of St Valentine’s Day 14 February being associated with love.

Valentine is the patron of travellers, beekeepers, engaged couples, lovers and young people.