The theft, desecration and attempted destruction of a popular medieval Czech Republic saint has shocked society in the highly secular Slavic nation.
On the evening of May 12, a man wearing dark clothing entered the Basilica of St. Lawrence and St. Zdislava in the Czech Republic town of Jablonné v Podještěd, allegedly broke the glass of a reliquary near the altar containing relics of 13th-century St. Zdislava, and ran away with her skull.
The suspect was arrested two days later and confessed to the crime, according to police, who said he had opposed the skull’s display and had intended to throw it into the river. The man had cast the skull in concrete, and conservationists are now trying to extract it, police also said.
Prague Archbishop Stanislav Přibyl, who also serves as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Litoměřice where the theft took place, called the act “a really serious matter” and “an intrusion on the sacred.”
The thief “may be beset by some curse” or “misfortune,” as “this is not a threat; this is reality; it happens,” Archbishop Přibyl told reporters.
“I was surprised and hurt,” Olomouc Archbishop Josef Nuzík, president of the Czech Bishops’ Conference (ČBK), reacted, saying
