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ROME, Italy (Reuters) — Lovers might lose their heads on St. Valentine's Day, but Friday part of the saint's skull found its way back to a central Italian church.
Twenty-four years after it was stolen, policemen returned the bone fragment to its home in the basilica in Terni, some 60 miles north of Rome.
Police found the revered piece of skull last month in the possession of an antique dealer in the far south of Italy, but waited until St. Valentine's Day to return it, displayed on a red cloth inside a wooden box.
St. Valentine, a third-century martyr and the guardian of amorous couples around the world, worked and died in what is now Italy. The people of Terni believe he was born in their city and claim him as their patron saint.
