A Frenchman stole and burned the remains of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from the Basilica in Lorraine.
On November 2, he smashed the altar, stole the small teshid vessel and destroyed it. He set fire to the ancient bones, and crushed the remaining fragments to dust. A few days later the police came to the offender.
During the interrogation, the man stated that he acted spontaneously. He said he considered the veneration of holy relics to be "fetishism" and "idolatry." A forensic psychiatric examination found him sane.
But the main shrine of the temple - the ulna bone of the saint - survived and is safe. The case joins a frightening series of attacks on churches and Christian communities in France.