DUBLIN — Officials at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin said Sunday 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.
“It has no economic value, but it is a priceless treasure that links our present foundation with its founding father,” said the Most Rev. Dermot Dunne, the cathedral’s dean.
Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Siochana, said detectives were studying closed-circuit TV footage to try to identify the approximately 40 people who walked out the cathedral’s front doors Saturday morning. The thief might have hidden overnight in the cathedral and fled with the heart when its doors opened Saturday.
Nuala Kavanagh, the cathedral’s director of operations, said whoever stole it appeared to have no interest in financial gain. Several nearby objects made of gold and other precious materials were not touched.
