Statues of Saints and the Virgin Mary Smashed, Decapitated, and Stolen in Ticino

Country: Switzerland

Date of incident: October 10, 2018


Since Easter, there have been eight attacks against statues of female saints and the Virgin Mary in the southern canton of Ticino.

On April 5, 2018, a 60-centimeter high figure of Saint Bernadette was stolen from the Lourdes Grotto in Fescoggia, parish of Melide. A few days later, during the night between the 7th and 8th of April, the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was also stolen. That figure was returned unharmed a week later. However, the statue of Saint Bernadette was smashed and parts of the clay figure were fished from the Laveggio River, ten kilometers away. 

At the end of July the Melide parish placed a new, 30-kilo stone Bernadette figure in the Lourdes Grotto. On September 30th, someone used a sledgehammer and great force to knock off her head and upper body. 

During the night of June 3rd, the figure of "Maria Bambina" was stolen from the church of the Sacro Cuore in Lugano. The parish priest, Father Giuseppe, explained that the statuette has no value in itself, but the church community are devoted to it and were outraged by its disappearance.

In early August, Madonna statue was stolen from a small bridge chapel in Castel San Pietro, about 20 kilometers south of Lugano. It was replaced, but the replacement statue was found broken in a ditch. On October 6th, the priest installed a new Madonna in the chapel, with a locked iron gate and secured with a chain on top. Later that night, someone cut the chain with a bolt cutter and smashed the face and the right hand of the statue through the bars of the gate. 

Although an anonymous letter apologizing for the deeds was received in May, after the initial theft and vandalism at the Lourdes Grotto, the perpetrators of those incidents as well as the later incidents are still unknown. 

"The police should take the investigation seriously, and not trivialize it," said the vice president of the church council of Melide. "There is much hatred behind these acts of violence."

Sources: Katholisch.de, Blick, Blick, Catt.ch, Catt.ch