Bone Fragment of St. Jude Taken From Church

SANTA CLARA —  A bone fragment certified by the Vatican as a relic of St. Jude, one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles, was stolen from a gold cross in a Roman Catholic Church, police said.

“That bone is the closest human remains we have to Christ,” said Frances Miller who obtained the fragment 15 years ago from an Italian priest and lent it to Our Lady of Peace Church.

The fragment of the Saint of Impossible Causes was taken from the glass enclosure of a 5-inch-high, gold-plated cross that was locked in a church cabinet. The theft was discovered Dec. 15 but not reported until this week.

“We’re going to proceed with a grand theft investigation,” Police Sgt. Pat Kolstad said Thursday. “I don’t know if there is a way to place a dollar value on it.”

Two possible suspects have been identified, Kolstad said, but he declined to identify them.

Several other items of “obvious value” were not disturbed in the theft, and there was no sign of forced entry into the cross, he said.

Miller said the bone fragment had been certified by the Vatican as a relic of St. Jude--also known in the Gospels as Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus.