The stolen skull of one of the Czech Republic’s most beloved saints has been found, police announced. Source: OSV News.
It was taken by a thief who slipped into a Dominican basilica just before evening Mass on May 12, smashed a glass reliquary and escaped in a flash with the remains of St Zdislava of Lemberk, a 13th-century Dominican laywoman whose relics have been venerated by pilgrims for centuries.
Police said on Friday they recovered the skull after finding it encased in concrete.
Investigators said the 35-year-old suspect believed the saint’s remains “would not find peace there” if they continued to be displayed in the basilica. According to police, he planned to throw the relic into a river and bury it privately.
“His motive was not to obtain money for it,” police spokeswoman Ivana Baláková said. Experts are now working to remove the skull from the hardened concrete and assess its condition.
Events on May 12 unfolded like a scene from a movie: the silhouette of a figure dressed in black, two quick bangs, shattered glass, and, before anyone could react, one of the Czech Republic’s most treasured Catholic relics had vanished.
The theft took place at the Basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in Jablonné v Podještedí, a small Czech town 110km north of the country’s capital, Prague, and home to one of the country’s most important pilgrimage sites.
A security camera captured the moment, but the footage is blurry.
It looked like a carefully planned burglary. Fr Štepán Filip, a Dominican priest who serves at the basilica, told Czech media outlet Seznam Zprávy that the entire operation lasted “a few seconds”.
He said he just saw someone run from the church with the relic in hand. The thief broke through two layers of protective glass, likely using a small emergency hammer, according to local reports.
Police released surveillance footage and appealed to the public for help identifying the perpetrator. On Thursday, they announced that a 35-year-old man had been detained.
Born around 1220 into a noble Bohemian family, St Zdislava married and raised four children. A lay member of the Dominican order, she devoted herself to the poor and the sick. St John Paul II canonised her in Olomouc on May 21, 1995.
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Police recover beloved saint’s relic taken in brazen thef that shocked Czech Catholics (By Katarzyna Szalajko, OSV News)
