Thieves have stolen a vial containing Pope St. John Paul’s blood from an Italian cathedral. On Wednesday last week the Spoleto Cathedral’ sacristan, who is in charge of protecting the building and its contents, discovered the vial was missing. Archbishop Renato Boccardo of Spoleto-Norcia, who was a close aide to John Paul for years at Read more
A relic of bone thought to belong to St John Henry Newman has been stolen. The Birmingham Oratory publicised the theft on Sunday, saying the bone fragment had been taken from its casket in the Newman Shrine. The fragment, some brass coffin handles and an inscription plate were the only remains found in Newman’s grave Read more
A chair was especially constructed for St John Paul to use during his visit to New Zealand in 1986. The fact that a Protestant was the first person to use it is a source of quiet amusement for the man who constructed it. Upholsterer Colin Loach tells how he put the very large chair in Read more
The Shroud of Turin has gone on display for the first time in five years. The 4.3 metre shroud has been put on display this year to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of St John Bosco, whose work in Turin focused on poor youth. More than a million people from as far afield Read more
A relic containing the blood of Blessed John Paul II, which was stolen last Sunday from an Italian church, has been been safely returned and the local bishop has forgiven the thieves who took it. The small piece of blood-soaked cloth, taken from from Pope John II’s cassock after he was shot by an assassin Read more
Italian police have recovered a vial of blood from Pope John Paul II contained in a backpack which three thieves stole from a priest on a train. The priest, Father Augusto Baldini, had left Rome for a sanctuary near the port of Civitavecchia, where the relic was to be put on display. When he got Read more
Traffic jams subsided in Russia after a relic, said to belong to the Virgin Mary, was returned to its home in the Greek monastic complex of Mount Athos. The relic, a belt of the Virigin, is believed to help women’s fertility and cure illnesses and modest estimates calculate nearly three million people visited the relic during its Read more