Stolen 800-year-old skull of Saint Zdislava found encased in concrete

On Tuesday, the ancient skull of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk, which is over 800 years old, was taken from the St Lawrence and St Zdislava basilica in Jablonné v Podještědí, but Czech authorities managed to retrieve it. A 35-year-old suspect was arrested in Mladá Boleslav on Thursday and confessed to the crime, which involved breaking into a glass shrine, encasing the skull in concrete, and planning to dump it in a river. This occurred right before evening mass when the church’s alarm was off. Police chief Petr Rajt noted that without the suspect’s capture, the skull might have been lost forever. The man, with no prior criminal record, could face up to eight years in prison. Saint Zdislava was canonized in 1995 by Pope John Paul II for her charitable work.