'It's going to leave a scar' - Boston church 'desolate' after theft of consecrated bread, plus blood relic of murdered Polish priest

St Nicholas’ Church, in Fishtoft Road, Skirbeck, says its community was left ‘shocked and rocked’ by the burglary, which took place between 4pm last Monday, May 9, and 8.55am the following day, with entry gained by breaking a stained glass window.

Among the items taken was a reliquary that held a drop of blood from Jerzy Popieluzko, a Polish priest murdered in the 1980s who was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 2009, that had been gifted to St Nicholas’ in the last year.

In addition, a number of votive candles were stolen as well as coins from the donation pot. However, the most significant loss to the church was the consecrated bread that was taken from the tabernacle.

To the Roman Catholic Church, consecrated bread does not just represent the body of Jesus, but becomes it through the process of transubstantiation.

Father John Underhill said he would have preferred anything else to have been stolen.

“The most precious thing in the church has been taken,” he said. “It shocked and rocked the church community and faithful in the parish. In its immediate wake, it left a feeling of desolation. We are doing our best to come out the other side and carry on, but I think it’s going to leave a scar for a while. It’s not taken place here in living memory. It’s never taken place in a parish where I have been.”

St Nicholas’ is the oldest parish church in Boston and is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Father John said the church was perceiving the break-in as religiously motivated as items of greater economic worth were not taken.

The cost of repairing the broken stained glass window – which Father John described of being of a ‘venerable’ age – is not yet known.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact them on [email protected] or via 101 quoting incident number 93 of May 10.

For more on St Nicholas’ Church, visit https://skirbeckstnicholas.com/