{"id":57220,"date":"2026-05-13T09:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/?p=57220"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:44:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:44:59","slug":"czech-police-seek-thief-who-stole-saints-skull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/?p=57220","title":{"rendered":"Czech Police Seek Thief who Stole Saint&#8217;s Skull"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An unidentified thief stole the skull of Czech saint Zdislava of Lemberk from a glass shrine in a northern Czech church, causing &#8220;incalculable&#8221; historic damage, police said late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\nSt Zdislava of Lemberk (estimated 1220-1252), a noblewoman known for her merciful and charitable deeds, was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1995.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe theft in the basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in the northern town of Jablonne v Podjestedi was committed after 1600 GMT, said police spokeswoman Dagmar Sochorova.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;An unknown culprit broke a shrine in which the skull was stored and ran away from the site,&#8221; AFP quoted her as saying.<\/p>\n<p>\nPolice published &#8220;low quality footage&#8221; depicting the culprit clad &#8220;probably&#8221; in black and wearing &#8220;probably&#8221; white shoes, and asked the public for help.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;The value of the stolen skull is currently being investigated. However, its historic value is obviously incalculable,&#8221; Sochorova added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Prague Archbishop Stanislav Pribyl, who also heads the Litomerice diocese in charge of the Jablonne church, said the news was &#8220;devastating&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nPlaced on an altar in a side chapel, the skull &#8220;was the subject of adoration for pilgrims travelling to Jablonne where Zdislava lived and worked more than 750 years ago,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I can&#8217;t believe that someone commits a daylight robbery to steal from a church a relic whose value is above all historic,&#8221; added Pribyl, who was named Prague archbishop in February.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/english.aawsat.com\/node\/5272701\">Original Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An unidentified thief stole the skull of Czech saint Zdislava of Lemberk from a glass shrine in a northern Czech church, causing &#8220;incalculable&#8221; historic damage, police said late on Tuesday. St Zdislava of Lemberk (estimated 1220-1252), a noblewoman known for her merciful and charitable deeds, was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1995. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57222,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-05-13T09:45:02Z","apple_news_api_id":"b6c0bc98-f880-4a26-9db6-efb6570fd48a","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-05-13T09:45:02Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AtsC8mPiASiadtu-2Vw_Uig","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-varieties"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57221,"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57220\/revisions\/57221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applenews.cloud.aawsat.london\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}