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Shawn Pogatchnik / AP
The iron cage that housed the heart of St. Laurence O'Toole sits broken and empty on Sunday.
Irish police on Monday were searching for a heart-stealer, with a twisted love of history.
Officials at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin said they're distraught and perplexed over the theft of the church's most precious relic: the preserved heart of St. Laurence O'Toole, patron saint of Dublin.
O'Toole's heart had been displayed in the cathedral since the 13th century. It was stored in a heart-shaped wooden box and secured in a small, square iron cage on the wall of a chapel dedicated to his memory. On Saturday someone cut through two bars, pried the cage loose, and made off with the relic.
"I am devastated that one of the treasured artifacts of the cathedral is stolen," said the Most Rev. Dermot Dunne, the cathedral's dean. "It has no economic value but it is a priceless treasure that links our present foundation with its founding father."
Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, said detectives were studying hours of closed-circuit TV footage to try to identify the approximately 40 people who walked out the cathedral's front doors Saturday morning.
“Nobody has ever attempted to steal the heart in the past; it was just there and it never crossed my mind that it might be stolen,” Dunne said. “It has no monetary value but we have loads of silver. It's the last thing we thought would be stolen.”
The police said the thief may have hidden overnight in the cathedral and fled with the heart when its doors opened Saturday. Worshippers didn't spot that the relic was missing until Saturday afternoon. Nobody was arrested.
The Irish Independent reported that the thief apparently lit two candles during the night before making off with the relic the next morning.
"The vergers realized it was gone when they opened the cathedral at 9.30am on Saturday morning," Dunne said.
Shawn Pogatchnik / AP
Tourists and vehicles pass by Christ Church Cathedral, one of the landmark buildings in Ireland's capital city.
"It was definitely there the evening before. They also noticed that there were two peace candles lit on the Trinity Altar. It's all very strange."
Ireland's churches have suffered a spate of such robberies of irreplaceable, but also hard to sell, religious artifacts.
Last year three relics believed to be fragments of the cross used to crucify Jesus were stolen from Holy Cross Abbey in County Tipperary. Police safely recovered those relics in January but arrested nobody.
St. Brigid’s jawbone?
Also in January, a thief stole the ornate container housing the jawbone of St. Brigid in a northside Dublin church. The container, called a reliquary, was bolted down to the altar. However, it had just been cleaned and so the jawbone of St. Brigid, one of Ireland's earliest and most venerated saints, wasn't inside.
O'Toole was Dublin's archbishop from 1162 to 1180 and gained a reputation as a skillful mediator between rival Gaelic and Norman factions then fighting for power in Ireland. He died aged 58 while traveling in Normandy on another peace mission. On his death bed he was said to have declined to make a will, claiming not to have a penny to his name.
Pope Honorius III canonized O'Toole in 1225 on the weight of many claims of miracles at his original grave site.
O'Toole's heart had been the last surviving part of his remains. His bones were reinterred in an English church yard in 1442 but were dug up and disappeared during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
Although O'Toole is mainly revered by Roman Catholics, Christ Church Cathedral has been a center of worship for the Anglican-affiliated Church of Ireland since the Reformation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
Why are there no riots?
An over exaggeration of one's intelligence causes disbelief and a lack of an ability to learn.
Learn what, to believe in flying angels or the removal of body parts for worship?
I "believe" God told people not to worship men or relics
You canonize me and I'll canonize you. Same old scratch my back. Everyone back in those days were scared sh*tless of anything they couldn't explain and couldn't explain much of anything except, of course, the cathoholic church. That new flower grew on the gravesite: it's a miracle!! Not much has changed since neolithic times, the 1200's and today as far as religion goes: they just make more money now with their voodoo. And the sheep just keep on being sheep. God bless you and give me your money, or else!!
I noticed today that millions of people have disissappeared. They're just gone. Now, the people who are left speak bable. Unregulated criminal capitalists, and torturers. No bid contractors, and satanic cult thugs. The organized crime, syndicate and aliens. Bourgeois conspicous criminal capitlaists, and hustlers. Black-hearted cheaters with blood on their hands. Child molesters and thieves.
But, enough about you and the Federal Government. I can see trouble brewing between your satanic cult, and honest Christian people.
Professor,,, Most of those you mentioned go to church. They are Christians or had exposure to the faith & church,,,,, need I mention the rape & plunder that went on during the Protestant Reformation?
As far as "honest Christian people" go, just look at today's politics, you won't find many
Maybe he left his heart in San Francisco.............did they look there?
Tony Bennett is Italian not Irish.... Look in a pub with the "O'Toole's" sign above the door
""...it never crossed my mind that it might be stolen,” Dunne said."
Then why was it "secured in a small, square iron cage"?
Just an observation in response to the earlier remarks about Roman Catholicism and relics...if you read all the way to the end of the article, you will find that this relic was stolen from the Anglican Cathedral in Dublin (The American equivilant being the Episcopal Church and the English equivelent being the Church of England), not the Roman Catholic cathedral.
Originally it was a Catholic church. When the heart was preserved it was not the Church of Ireland, it was Catholic.
I'm not sure what difference that makes to this discussion. It is now an Anglican cathedral and the relic was preserved in an Anglican house of worship for the last 500 years. What is your point? The anti-Roman Catholic remarks are unfounded since this relic has been venerated in an Anglican church for centuries.
I am sorry, But in my opinion, Everyone one of the religeous sec's be it Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, even Paegan, Are in todays world all wrong with their teachings, They shouldn't even claim to be of or follow Jesus Christ and his teachings, In my belief of reasoning why, None of you follow the basic teaching of Jesus which was to love your fellow man under no condition, so it shouldn't matter what religion you are of, Just that as Jesus had taught that no man should be held above another, All should be accepted without any perception of good or evil, right down to thief, the sick, the under priviledged, the rich, none should have any amount of reason to deny the love of Christ, And everyone of you do. I choose to be Agnostic Because of you, I know there is some higher Power someone or thing stronger than anyone who is here on earth now.
But like you all I ran away from the subject at hand the person who alieviated the Heart from the church I would say Is probably just stirring controversy and doing a good job of it as well. Good luck in finding said culprit.
And good luck in your arguments that most have turned away from churches because of.
Thats because you believe in man. The heart of man is inherently wicked. The bible is the word of God, live by that not by what man thinks is the way. If you do that, if everyone does that then there would be no reason for religion as all would be truly followers of Christ.
If the painting next to the cage is St O'Toole stepping out of the shower,,, you have to ask what was the real purpose of his heart being in an iron cage
Just a point of clarification: If you read to the end of the article, you will find that this is an Anglican cathedral, not Roman Catholic...so the comments about Roman Catholics and relics are not applicable here.
I thought this was pretty weird at first too. Keeping a human heart in a box. But then you think about it. And don't we do that with our dead anyways. Only instead of keeping a part we keep their whole body, stick it in a box, burry it, and then at least once in awhile visit that body and leave flowers or what not. Starts seeming not so weird. OR we burn the body stick it in box and leave it on the mantle place. The actually make jewelry now that you can put ashes in.
People keep saying "cultish" but i mean they aren't sitting around the heart worshipping it or trying to invoke something from it. It was some one that they loved or hold in high regard and they want to keep a part of that close.
In regards to holy relics and their power, I was the biggest skeptic ever, believing that the people who made such claims were truly desperate. However, on a trip to Montreal, I visited The Oritouis St. Joseph, a quarter scale version of the Vatican which sits atop Mt Royal. While touring this magnificent church I came across the black marble sarcofficus of a holy man, Frere Andre, who was said to be a pious man with the ability to heal the lame. There is a wall at the church covered with racks of canes and crutches left behind by those whom he healed. For reasons I can not explain, because I do not know why, I reached out and touched the shinny and smooth marble that was his sarcophagus. What happened next changed me forever, for the good, beyond anything I can explain here. I now know that God is indeed real and after what I felt, I have no other wish than to be with him in heaven. Scoff if you wish and I am sure you will, but remember, I was the biggest skeptic ever, until it happened to me. God is real and so are the saints and the power God invested in them!
I hear what you are saying -- I was a believer until I spent 2 weeks in Egypt visiting the many 3000+ y/o Temples ..
It was there that upon seeing the references to Atom (the first man/God) and the Key of Life that the Christians stole as their symbol, and the other Pharaohs that rose from the dead that I realized that all religions are silly superstitions.. While I always enjoy the spectacular architecture of churches like Notre Dame they are nothing spiritual other than a celebration of human accomplishment.
I left the HEART in SAN FRANCISCO or maybe VAGUS
Maybe the thief will bring it to Utah so it can be properly baptized.
lol
Perhaps it was a hungry heart worm with a crowbar.
JOregon: Sorry, but Baptists as a religion started in the 17th Century. For you to claim otherwise is not truthful, nor is trying to "redefine" history to suit your purpose. I know, I'm a Baptist Minister.
Tyrone
If you are a Baptist Minister then you should know of Charles Spurgeon.
It is Spurgeon that I quoted.
There are lots of Baptist Ministers, few agree.
That is why we have Freewill Baptists, Reformed Baptists, etc etc etc.
Yes Tyrone, we know that your invisible superhero is better than anyone else.
Someone must really have no heart to do this :p couldnt resist!
This thief is not an atheist, he could be an alchemist.Many churches in Europe have relics of saints, but hearts not so often. There is another in Naples of Saint Genaro. The last time it bleed they had an earthquake in Naples and it was felt in Rome in 1981. I hope this person returns the heart of Lawrence O'toole.
I thought that picture above the cage was Bono.
But we have loads of silver you say....... very interesting
I would have thought an Irish saint's liver would be better preserved.........(already pickled)
Heartless!
They need to get Buffy to solve this case!!
Why in heaven would they keep a piece of decaying flesh in a church? Aren't body parts supposed to be returned to the earth. What happened to "..remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return..."
Better check with Tony Bennett to see if it got left in San Francisco.