The Case of the Stolen Relics

The preserved heart of Dublin's patron saint has been stolen from the city's Christ Church Cathedral, officials say.

Pic of the reliquary that the heart was stolen from:



Apparently the theft is just the latest in a series of relic thefts in the Irish Republic:

In recent months other relics have been stolen in the Irish Republic.

An ornate container that usually contained a relic of St Brigid was stolen from St Brigid's Church, Killester, north of Dublin, where it was screwed onto the altar.

And in October last year a relic believed to be from the cross on which Jesus was crucified, was stolen from Holycross Abbey, near Thurles.

It was later returned after a police search.

As my post title might suggest, I think that the thefts would make a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche story:

One morning in the spring of the year 18--, while Mr. Sherlock Holmes and I were finishing breakfast, Mrs. Hudson came up to announce a visitor. Taking the card that our landlady proferred, Holmes looked at it and his eyebrows lifted, then he passed it to me; looking at it, I saw that our visitor was none other than the Right Honourable Patrick Mockridge, Archbishop of Dublin...

Or it could make a Dan Browne story, I suppose, although I haven't read any of those.

You have to wonder why someone would steal relics. Is there a market for them? Puzzling, to say the least.

h/t Ann Althouse.