A sacred utensil containing a fragment of the remains of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was stolen from the Basilica of St. Nicholas in the French commune of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. The criminal then destroyed them.
On November 2, the rector of the temple submitted an official notification to the police about the disappearance of a fragment of the remains. A day earlier, an assailant, whose identity has not been revealed, smashed a display case, stole a hand containing bones, took it home, and then burned the bone fragments and crushed them to dust.
The vandal did not steal the main relic of the temple - the phalanx of Nicholas's finger, but a small one - fragments of his bones. It is likely that the small sacred hand, which is on the central altar of the patron of the temple, was less well preserved, or accidentally became a more convenient target for the criminal.
The attacker explained his barbaric act by "desiring to destroy the relic", and said that he considers the worship of the relic a "fetishism". His identity and nationality have not been disclosed.
Last week, a 58-year-old Indian man destroyed headstones and crosses on 185 graves in a French cemetery.
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