It was in a press release that the bishop of Le Havre, Jean-Luc Brunin, announced on Friday June 3, 2022 that the abbey church of Sainte-Trinité in Fécamp in Seine-Maritime had been the scene of a theft. In effect, ” part of the treasure kept in a piece of furniture in the sacristy was stolen “, indicates the diocese.
The centerpiece of this treasure are two vials containing the “Precious Blood”, to which an ancestral belief is attached since the blood of Christ was collected there at the time of his Crucifixion on Golgotha. The abbey church of Fécamp was also built in the year 658 near the place where the box containing these two phials is said to have run aground. Legend has it that they were hidden and protected in a fig tree traveling and floating on the seas as far as the Pays de Caux… Heart of the abbey and object of devotion, the Precious Blood is said to be the source of five miracles.
No particular protection system
In the sacristy of the abbey whose door was forced by the criminals, the chest containing the vials was protected neither by an alarm system nor by a video surveillance device. Valuable liturgical dishes and other objects of worship were also stolen during the same night from June 1 to 2, further specifies the press release from the Bishop of Le Havre. The diocese continues that “ this theft occurs a few days before the Festival where the relic is venerated by the population of Fécamp to ensure that ” we will however propose a mass of reparation “. It will be held on Tuesday, June 14, in a reparative gesture and in fidelity to the devotion to the Precious Blood, so dear to the hearts of the inhabitants of Fécamp and its region, the celebration will be celebrated with even more fervor ».
At the same time, a complaint was filed following the theft and the investigation was entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property.
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