Czech police have recovered the stolen skull of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk, an 800-year-old relic taken from a church in northern Bohemia earlier this week, after the suspect encased it in concrete and planned to dump it in a river. A 35-year-old man was arrested on Thursday in Mladá Boleslav, a city northeast of Prague, and has confessed to the theft. Experts are now working to extract the relic from the concrete.

The skull was stolen on Tuesday evening from a glass shrine in the Basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in Jablonné v Podještědí, a town in the far north of the Czech Republic near the German border. The suspect allegedly smashed the glass case and fled with the relic shortly before an evening mass, taking advantage of a moment when the church alarm was switched off. Security camera footage had captured the theft. The local police chief, Petr Rajt, said officers recovered the skull through what he described as "meticulous police work and a bit of police luck." Had the arrest come a day later, he noted, the skull would almost certainly have been lost: "We know he wanted to sink it in the river today to bid farewell in this way."

The suspect told police he objected to the skull being publicly displayed and intended to give it what he described as a private burial by submerging it in a river. He has been charged with theft and other offences, and is being held in pre-trial custody. The man has no prior criminal record but faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.

Saint Zdislava was a 13th-century noblewoman, born around 1220, who was revered for her charitable works and acts of mercy. She was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1995 and is considered a patron saint of those in troubled marriages and of people mocked for their piety. The Prague Archbishop Stanislav Pribyl had described the theft as "devastating news," noting that pilgrims venerated the skull and that it held immeasurable historical and spiritual value.

The case highlights the vulnerability of religious heritage objects even in active places of worship. With the relic now recovered, the immediate concern is its preservation: conservators face the delicate task of freeing the centuries-old skull from the concrete without causing further damage.