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Posted on 01/24/2008 5:49:15 AM PST by NYer
The heart of a revered 19th-century Argentine friar and patriot has been stolen from the Franciscan monastery where it was kept for years as a religious relic, a church official said.
The thief removed Mamerto Esquiú's heart yesterday, leaving behind the urn in which it was stored, said Jorge Martinez, head of the San Francisco monastery in the north-western province of Catamarca.
"The theft was carried out because of the heart - nothing else was stolen," he told local reporters. "It's very sad."
Born in Catamarca in 1826, Esquiú entered the monastery at a young age and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1848.
He became a famed religious leader and patriot for his stirring speeches and homilies supporting Argentine unity and the country's 1853 constitution.
Esquiú died in 1883. When his body was exhumed for an autopsy shortly after, church authorities said his heart showed no sign of decomposition.
Vatican authorities in recent years began to consider Esquiú for possible beatification, a step toward sainthood in the Catholic church.
Yesterday's theft was the second time since 1990 that the friar's heart has gone missing, the Catamarca daily El Ancasti reported.
Witnesses reported seeing a bearded man run from the monastery around the time the heart went missing, but no one has been arrested, the paper said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Did anyone look in San Francisco?
Anne Coulter stole my heart years ago...
You know what they say: “You Gotta Have Heart”.
I wonder if they’re going to try to transplant it into Hillary.
Maybe I missed it, but how did they recover it the first time it was stolen?
Hav-A-Heart trap
Satanists. Not good at all. Lord have mercy.
Maybe it was requested of the Lord that Sts. Anthony and Augustine help out.
Sad to see evidence of the ignorance that causes people to revere — even worship — created leftovers...
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