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CHRIST'S FORESKIN:The Christian messiah was born a Jew. So it follows that he would have been circumcised. What would be a bigger crowd-drawer than the leftovers of Jesus' bris? At least a dozen churches eventually claimed to possess this intimate piece of history. Most have since been lost to the passage of time. But the Italian congregation of Calcata managed to keep hold of its piece of skin to parade through the streets every January 1 until 1983. This is when the jewelled case and its contents vanished.
Divine possession ... the first reliquary containing Pope John Paul II’s blood to be stolen.Source:Supplied
POPE JOHN PAUL II'S BLOOD BOOK:Yes, the recetn clothing incident is actually the second hit on this particular pope's holy blood. A crystal vial inlaid in a religious tome was pinched from a priest's backpack as he travelled by train to deliver the precious object to its new home - a church north of Rome. It eventually turned up in the backpack which had been dumped in a field.
ST LAURENCE O'TOOLE'S HEART:Born about 1128 to a minor Irish noble family, he was taken hostage as a child but later allowed to enter a monastic school. He was noted as being a particularly humble man who helped ease the suffering after England invaded Ireland in 1172. His remains were stolen from a Dublin cathedral in 2012. The iron cage which protected it was pried open and the more expensive items about it left untouched.
ST ANTHONY, PATRON SAINT OF LOST CAUSES:Yes, even this saint has had his relics stolen. In 2011, a Long Beach parish in California reported its prized possession - in a 780-year-old gold-and-silver case - was missing. Unusually, and perhaps because of his particular powers, this object was found by police a few days later.
WHO IS TAKING THEM?
The mystic-religious background of these objects has inspired fertile minds for centuries - and petty theft sounds so ordinary when the object is Christ's foreskin or a pontiff's blood.
So, theories abound.
Catholic news organisations are leaping to blame Satanism for such diabolic sacrilege.
The most fanciful explanations pick up whereJurassic Parkleft off - and speculate that the preserved DNA within these expensive cases offer the opportunity to clone people proven by the church to have had mystical powers.
Here are some of the explanations circulating at the moment.
CLONING:This conspiracy theory is nothing new. Several book postulate that the Calcata relic was stolen by the Vatican itself out of fear someone may want to clone Christ himself. Internet chat groups such as Redditand Inagisthave embraced the concept - warning of impending armies of cloned "antichrists" cooked up from the blood of Christ, popes and saints.
SATANIC CEREMONY:When it comes to the recent Pope John Paul II incident, a Catholic anti-cult organisation insists the blood was stolen for Satanic rituals.The Satanic "new year" begins February 1, they say. "This sort of sacrilege often takes place at this time of the year," a spokesman said. It's an idea embraced by the catholic.org website, arguing it is just the latest act of an increasingly intense "spiritual war" being raged for our souls.
EXTREMIST CATHOLICS:Not all Catholics buy the Satanic ceremony line. Instead, some fear these thefts represent the actions of marginal groups within their own churchto steal holy objects to furnish their own secret "underground" churches.
HOLY-BAY? Yes, Italy's eBay outlet has a section dedicated to the sale of religious relics. And supply of these tightly-held objects is limited - particularly because the Vatican has forbidden their sale or trade. So the opportunity to swipe a relic, particularly one that has not been officially recognised by the church, could be seen as an opportunity for fast cash. But it's more the presence of such sale sites that demonstrates the value such objects hold in the minds of many.
BLACK MARKET:There is plenty of reason to believe that among Europe's super rich is a clique of collectors gathering as many historic and religious relics as they can. Driving a black market reaching from the forgotten temples amid the forests of South America through to Chinese burial mounds, some of these collections have come to light. For example, in 1991 an Italian crime boss had his home raided and the missing chin of Saint Antonio was recovered.
It also ties into the idea of secret societies among the super-rich and influential, such as theDa Vinci Code-style theory that the Knights Templar still exist.
Divine possession ... the first reliquary containing Pope John Paul II’s blood to be stolen.Source:Supplied
POPE JOHN PAUL II'S BLOOD BOOK:Yes, the recetn clothing incident is actually the second hit on this particular pope's holy blood. A crystal vial inlaid in a religious tome was pinched from a priest's backpack as he travelled by train to deliver the precious object to its new home - a church north of Rome. It eventually turned up in the backpack which had been dumped in a field.
ST LAURENCE O'TOOLE'S HEART:Born about 1128 to a minor Irish noble family, he was taken hostage as a child but later allowed to enter a monastic school. He was noted as being a particularly humble man who helped ease the suffering after England invaded Ireland in 1172. His remains were stolen from a Dublin cathedral in 2012. The iron cage which protected it was pried open and the more expensive items about it left untouched.
ST ANTHONY, PATRON SAINT OF LOST CAUSES:Yes, even this saint has had his relics stolen. In 2011, a Long Beach parish in California reported its prized possession - in a 780-year-old gold-and-silver case - was missing. Unusually, and perhaps because of his particular powers, this object was found by police a few days later.
WHO IS TAKING THEM?
The mystic-religious background of these objects has inspired fertile minds for centuries - and petty theft sounds so ordinary when the object is Christ's foreskin or a pontiff's blood.
So, theories abound.
Catholic news organisations are leaping to blame Satanism for such diabolic sacrilege.
The most fanciful explanations pick up whereJurassic Parkleft off - and speculate that the preserved DNA within these expensive cases offer the opportunity to clone people proven by the church to have had mystical powers.
Here are some of the explanations circulating at the moment.
CLONING:This conspiracy theory is nothing new. Several book postulate that the Calcata relic was stolen by the Vatican itself out of fear someone may want to clone Christ himself. Internet chat groups such as Redditand Inagisthave embraced the concept - warning of impending armies of cloned "antichrists" cooked up from the blood of Christ, popes and saints.
SATANIC CEREMONY:When it comes to the recent Pope John Paul II incident, a Catholic anti-cult organisation insists the blood was stolen for Satanic rituals.The Satanic "new year" begins February 1, they say. "This sort of sacrilege often takes place at this time of the year," a spokesman said. It's an idea embraced by the catholic.org website, arguing it is just the latest act of an increasingly intense "spiritual war" being raged for our souls.
EXTREMIST CATHOLICS:Not all Catholics buy the Satanic ceremony line. Instead, some fear these thefts represent the actions of marginal groups within their own churchto steal holy objects to furnish their own secret "underground" churches.
HOLY-BAY? Yes, Italy's eBay outlet has a section dedicated to the sale of religious relics. And supply of these tightly-held objects is limited - particularly because the Vatican has forbidden their sale or trade. So the opportunity to swipe a relic, particularly one that has not been officially recognised by the church, could be seen as an opportunity for fast cash. But it's more the presence of such sale sites that demonstrates the value such objects hold in the minds of many.
BLACK MARKET:There is plenty of reason to believe that among Europe's super rich is a clique of collectors gathering as many historic and religious relics as they can. Driving a black market reaching from the forgotten temples amid the forests of South America through to Chinese burial mounds, some of these collections have come to light. For example, in 1991 an Italian crime boss had his home raided and the missing chin of Saint Antonio was recovered.
It also ties into the idea of secret societies among the super-rich and influential, such as theDa Vinci Code-style theory that the Knights Templar still exist.