Relic Returned To St. Anthony Church

[didymus]

Gazettes.com

Relic Returned To St. Anthony Church

An almost 800-year-old relic was returned to St. Anthony Catholic Church just days after it turned up missing earlier in the week.

Police arrested Maria Solis, 41, of Long Beach for the alleged grand theft of a relic that was taken from its display case the morning of Monday, June 13.
Church members said they were shocked when the relic was found missing during morning mass. The church, which was founded 110 years ago, only displays this particular relic on very special occasions - the last time being for its 100-year anniversary. This time, Father José Magaña had brought it out to celebrate the anniversary of St. Anthony’s death.

The suspect was taken into custody at about 5:30 p.m. on Thursday evening. She matched a description of a person of interest and sketch police officials released on Monday.

I’m glad they got it back, I can’t believe anyone would steal a relic in the first place.

 

[jen_fla]

i had complete faith the lost-by-theft relic would be found! thank God!

 

[CatholicFireman]

I am very happy to hear this.

I want to say, “Thank you, St. Anthony for finding yourself”.

But I am also sorry for the person who took the relic. I just wonder what goes through some people’s minds sometimes.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

The first fear was that it was stolen for the value of the case. I haven’t seen any explanation, but suspect someone had an excess of devotion and wanted her own personal shrine.

In any case she messed with the wrong saint. Saint Anthony works fast on getting things back where they belong.