You would think that someone intent to rob a cathedral of a priceless relic might pause to consider the Book of Exodus’ admonition: “You shall not steal.” After all, says the psalmist this Sunday, the law of the Lord is perfect, trustworthy, clear, true, and--even if one’s motivation were monetary--“more precious than gold.” Alas, scriptural guidance was not enough to dissuade a thief in Dublin from making off with the 884-year-old heart of Saint Laurence O’Toole, stolen last weekend from the iron cage where it was kept in Christ Church Cathedral.

“All I would ask is that whoever took it would return it with no questions asked. It's valueless to anyone but the cathedral here and our community and the community of Dublin . . . we're grieving over it, really,” Church Dean Rev. Dermot Dunne said Monday.

Dunne said that the local Christian community is particularly devastated “that someone should deprive us of a special link” to their past and their Christian founder. Although Christ Church Cathedral belongs to the Anglican Church, Dunne said that both the Catholic and Anglican dioceses of Dublin venerate O'Toole as the patron of the city.

“The outpouring of emotion of horror at such a crime is quite notable” among both communities, Dunne said. “It's showing how much Laurence O'Toole is in the hearts of people.” Centuries prior to the Protestant Reformation, O'Toole established the Augustinian religious order in Ireland's capital and has “been venerated as the person who established the faith in Dublin.”

During a pilgrimage to Rome, O'Toole died in Normandy. His body was buried in France but his heart was returned to Ireland “because that's where his heart was really, in the life and city of Dublin,” the Anglican priest said. The relic, which was kept in a heart-shaped wooden box behind an iron cage, has been housed in the cathedral for over 800 years.

Sources: Articles by Peter Taggart for CNN News, Shawn Pogatchnik
for the Associated Press, and Hillary Senour for the Catholic News Agency