Stolen heart

Irish police are hunting for a thief who stole the heart of a saint. The burglar sneaked into Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin on Friday night and ignored valuable gold chalices and candlesticks, choosing instead to take the preserved heart of Laurence O'Toole, the city's 12th-century patron saint. A cathedral spokesman said the thief would have needed a metal cutter to remove the heart, which was kept in a wooden reliquary inside a box with iron bars. No alarm was triggered and there was no sign of a break-in, said the spokesman, adding that three valuable gold chalices and gold candlesticks in the chapel were not stolen. "It's completely bizarre. They didn't touch anything else. They specifically targeted this, they wanted the heart of St Laurence O'Toole," the spokesman said.