Remains of Argentine friar's heart stolen from monastery
Haroon Siddique and agencies
Wednesday January 23, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
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 Esqui�'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, Esqui� 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.
Esqui� 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 Esqui� 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.
