Catholics pray to St. Anthony when they’ve lost something, but what if it’s a St. Anthony statue that is lost?
Someone who stole a |4½-foot St. Anthony statue this weekend from a secluded limestone chapel at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay apparently put some labor into the theft.
Police could see where something heavy was dragged on the gravel and wood-chip path from LeMieux Chapel in Cofrin Memorial Arboretum on the UWGB campus. The 12-by-18-foot chapel is unlocked.
Campus police Lt. Keith Rosin said the statue may have been dumped in the woods, but it has not been found.
The theft was discovered Sunday morning, said Joan Jadin, whose family takes care of the chapel, built in about 1925 by stonemason Joseph LeMieux and his brother-in-law, Fabian LaPlant, a carpenter.
It may have been taken on Saturday, the Feast Day of St. Anthony, she said.
Jadin noted the irony that St. Anthony is the Catholic patron saint of lost items.
“Now we’ll be praying for a lost St. Anthony,” she said. “What a sad day. It’s always been a place of comfort.”[reference]
I guess it would be more ironic if a St. Dismas statue was stolen.
4 comments
St. Anthony would probably say that imitation is a form a flattery, and refer to statues of our Lord being taken at Christmas to deflect attention from himself and put it on Jesus.
UhOh, Now the ACLU knows there is a chapel at UWGB. Looks like there’s something else to pray for. AnneG in NC
How about asking St. Jude to find the St. Anthony statue?
Ah, St. Dismas. That’s the name I couldn’t think of yesterday morning. As my train pulled away from the station, I realized I’d forgotten to lock my bike to anything, and it was going to be at the mercy of other people’s good will for the next 12 hours or so while I was at work. I searched for a saint to ask the intercession of, and ended up praying to “the Good Thief” because I couldn’t remember his name.
He apparently didn’t mind, because my bike was right where I left it when I got back that night.