Police search for thief who stole Saint Zdislava's skull from Czech church

Police in the Czech Republic were searching for the person who stole the skull of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk from a glass shrine inside the Basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in Jablonné v Podještědí, about 110 kilometers north of Prague. The relic disappeared at the start of a church service on Monday evening, May 12, 2026, after the basilica’s alarm system had been switched off for the ceremony. Only a priest was inside. Dean Pavel P. Mayer said he heard two bangs, then saw someone running away from the church.

Investigators said low-quality footage showed a figure probably dressed in black and wearing probably white shoes fleeing after the shrine was broken. Czech police have appealed for help identifying the suspect, while spokeswoman Dagmar Sochorova said the skull’s value was being investigated but its historic importance was incalculable. The case is now as much a preservation emergency as a criminal investigation, because the object was not simply church property but a relic tied to centuries of local devotion.

Zdislava of Lemberk lived from about 1220 to 1252 and was known for generosity and charitable work. The Roman Catholic Church commemorates her on May 30. She was beatified in 1907 and canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 21, 1995, in Olomouc, alongside Jan Sarkander. The Prague Archbishop Stanislav Pribyl said the news was devastating and said he could not believe someone would carry out a daylight robbery to take a relic whose value was above all historic. The skull had been placed on an altar in a side chapel and was a focus of adoration for pilgrims visiting the church where Zdislava lived and worked more than 750 years ago.

The theft has struck a nerve because the basilica itself is part of the region’s religious and cultural identity. The church was consecrated in 1729, and St. Zdislava’s remains were transferred there in 1731. A fire in 1788 destroyed the monastery and the original parish church in Jablonné, underscoring how fragile the site’s history already is. Zdislava later became patron saint of the Litoměřice diocese in 2000, the Liberec region in 2002 and the Czech Dominican province in 2020. For believers, the relic marked a living link to a saint remembered for caring for the poor and the sick. Its loss exposed how vulnerable sacred artifacts remain, even inside buildings meant to protect them.