Religious statue stolen from Mount Carmel
Areligious statue of St. Therese that welcomes visitors to an outdoor grotto at Mount Carmel Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls has been stolen.
The Stanley Avenue monastery is home to the Canadian National Shrine to Saint Therese of Lisieux and has both indoor and outdoor shrines to the saint known as “Little Flower.”
The statue is believed to have been stolen from the 4.8-hectare property overlooking the falls sometime between Nov. 16 and 18.
Fr. Chris Kulig said the 0.6metre-tall statue has no monetary value, but is of deep spiritual significance to devotees.
“It’s in a bucolic place of prayer on the property and it gets lots of visitors in the summertime,” he said.
“It’s a special place where people can come and pray and a space for people to leave their sacramentals, from flowers like roses to rosaries and even prayer requests that are quite touching.”
Mount Carmel is hoping the figure will be returned.
“No questions asked,” Kulig said.
“No harm, now foul, as it were. We’re all about forgiveness here and we would just like to see her back so people can have a plan to express their devotion to St. Therese.”
Therese Martin was born in France in 1873. At 15, she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux and took the religious name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
She died in 1897 at the age of 24 and was canonized in 1925. In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the church.
Niagara Regional Police are investigating the incident, said Const. Phil Gavin.
Anyone with information the missing statue can call police at 905- 688- 4111 ext. 2200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222TIPS.