Stolen holy relic returned to where it belongs
A relic which is believed by the Roman Catholics to contain a piece of the original crucifix was stolen from a Boston cathedral and returned in Vermont by a transient which disappeared while the church officials were studying the piece to verify its authenticity.
The church officials are still trying to find the man who returned the artifact over to Vermont State Police on the 9th of August. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross where the Relic of the True Cross was held a prayer service each week in hopes that the relic will be returned, and are planning on holding a ceremony to welcome it back where it belongs. The relic consists in a piece of wood believed to be part of the cross on which Jesus was crucified and is kept in a round brass case with the diameter of 2 inches which has a seal stamped on the back with the pope’s ring.
A janitor at the cathedral noticed on the 1st of July that the panel covering a small glass box containing the relic was opened and the case had disappeared. The relic was received as a gift in the 18th century by Reverend Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, who was going to become later the first bishop of Boston and has an estimated street value ranging from 2,300 to 3,800 dollars. Vermont State Police are looking for 34 years old Earl Frost which came to the attention of the police officers when his partner, Richard Duncan, of Royalton, called the police to let them know about a domestic fight they were having. Earl Frost told the police that they were fighting over a stolen religious artifact that he wanted to return to the church it was coming from. They managed to persuade the two men to take the alleged relic to the State Police barracks in Royalton, but they could not do much because they were not sure the item was the real one, because there were many false reports about its recovery and the church officials were not able to travel to Royalton until a few days later. Frost told the police that he received the item from someone in Rhode Island and talked to a priest from the Boston cathedral about returning it where it belonged.
