Stolen Statue Of St. Rita Returned To National Shrine Of Saint Rita Of Cascia In South Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A statue of a saint has been found and safely returned to a church in South Philadelphia. The National Shrine of Saint Rita of Cascia says a neighbor saw the statue a few blocks away.
It had been abandoned on Webster and 16th Streets.
The statue had been missing since Friday morning.
The statue belongs in a stone cove behind a locked glass door.
The glass was not broken into and a lock appeared to be intact.
"We must celebrate and rejoice, because... [she] was lost and has been found." We just got off the phone with the...
Posted by National Shrine of Saint Rita of Cascia on Saturday, August 14, 2021
The church community told Eyewitness News that the statue is important to parishioners.
"We're often very much seen as a place of solace and comfort for people coming through," Father Bob Guessetto said, " so they come into the shrine, they spend time in the prayer and they are also are pleased to find that as they walk by the image of Saint Rita is there for them to turn to."
The church says assuming there's no major damage done to the statue, they plan to clean it and return it to the Grotto as soon as possible.
CBS3's Howard Monroe contributed to this report.