A plaster statue of Saint Joseph was stolen from the abbey church of Saint-Jouin de Marnes in the Deux Sèvres department on 4 August.
A complaint has been lodged with the gendarmerie in an attempt to find the person or persons responsible. ‘It's a real shame. It's a statue about a metre high, made of plaster, which has no monetary value’, says Jean-Marie Chauveau, pastoral delegate for Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes, Brie and Irais.
The statue was donated to the abbey church by the church in Assais-les-Jumeaux a few years ago.
Previous thefts from the abbey church have been reported in the past, and one case was finally solved when the theft was recovered in Paris.