Saint Laurence O’Toole’s Heart
Saint Laurence O’Toole is the patron saint of Dublin. He was archbishop of Dublin between 1162 and 1180 during the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland and his heart is today kept in Christ Church Cathedral encased in an iron heart shaped reliquary (a container for relics).
Laurence O’Toole was born in 1128 A.D. near Castledermot in County Kildare and came from a powerful family. His father was Muirchertach Ua Tuathai, the king of northern Leinster. When he was 10 years old, Laurence was taken as a hostage by Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster. Hostage taking was a common practice at the time and was done to ensure that under-kings remained loyal to over-kings.
Dermot MacMurrough was the king who invited the Anglo-Normans into Ireland with the expectation that they would help him become high king of Ireland. This has earned him a place in the hall of infamy of Irish history.
At some point, King Muirchertach Ua Tuathail’s loyalty must have fallen under suspicion, as Laurence O’Toole was for two years kept in extremely difficult conditions in which he had barely enough to eat. However, due to the intercession of the Abbot of Glendalough, he was released from these conditions.
Lorcan later became a priest at the Abbey of Glendalough and in 1154 he became the abbot of Glendalough. In 1162, he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin and laid the foundation stone of Christ Church cathedral soon after.
O’Toole was known for his ascetic lifestyle. He wore a hair shirt, never ate meat and fasted every Friday on bread and water and abstained from alcohol, drinking colored water himself instead of the wine which his guests drank when he entertained them.
He became well-known for his charity to the poor at a time when desperate poverty existed in Dublin alongside conspicuous wealth. One third of infants died before the age of five and many mothers died either during childbirth or soon afterwards as a result of infections. Most adults could expect to live until their forties at most.
While on a journey to King Henry II of England, O’Toole died in Normandy at the Abbey of Saint Victor on 14th of November 1180. In 1225, he was canonized by Pope Honorius III because of the miracles attributed to him. He was originally interred in Normandy and a new church, the Collégiale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Laurent (the Church of Our Lady and St. Lorcán), was constructed there because of the number of devotees who were visiting there because of the miracles associated with his tomb.
His bones were taken back to England in the 1440’s and interred at the parish church in Chorley, but disappeared during the English Reformation at the time when praying at the relics of the Saints was considered idolatrous. However, Lorcan O’Toole’s skull is today kept at the Collégiale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Laurent. His feast day is on the 14th of November, the anniversary of his death, every year.
Laurence O’Toole’s Wandering Heart
O’Toole’s heart was returned to Christ Church Cathedral in 1230. This practice was not uncommon at the time and people would request in their wills that their heart be deposited in a church to which they had some particular devotional attachment, although this would have been reserved for those who had the financial means to do so.
Despite the Reformation of King Henry VIII, which sought to end Catholic practices, which among other things included the veneration of saints and their relics, the relic somehow managed to survive and remained there and is today kept in an iron heart shaped reliquary at Christ Church Cathedral.
It is unlikely to have been originally kept in this iron heart shaped reliquary and may have disappeared from public view in the 15th century before being found again in the 19th century.
However, there was also a period of time quite recently in which the saint’s heart was not present in the cathedral because it had been stolen. On the morning of the 4th of March 2012, it was discovered by staff and visitors at the cathedral that the reliquary containing his heart was missing. The way in which the relic had been stolen suggests that there had been some advanced planning involved. The heart had been kept in a small chapel known as ‘The Peace Chapel of Saint Laud’. Although the exact time of the theft is uncertain, it appeared that that the thieves may have hidden in the Cathedral overnight, as there had been no signs of a break-in. The thieves may have used bolt cutters to cut the iron bars of the small cage in which it had been kept and two candles had been lit on an altar before they left. Rather unusually, a variety of valuable artifacts such as gold and silver antique candlesticks and chalices which were kept on public view in the Cathedral’s crypt had been left untouched.
O’Toole’s heart remained missing until April 2018 when, following a tip-off, it was recovered in its original heart-shaped reliquary in the Phoenix Park by Gardai. It was handed over to the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, Doctor Michael Jackson, in April 2018 by Assistant Garda Commissioner Pat Leahy and it returned to public viewing at the cathedral in November 2018.
Today, Saint Laurence O’Toole’s heart is kept in a glass case in the small Saint Laurence’s Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral. It rests on a white cushion in a display which was designed by artist Eoin Turner. You can still see the damaged cage which was cut open in order to steal it in Saint Laud’s Peace Chapel at the top of Christ Church Cathedral to the right of the main altar. If you visit the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral, you can see the variety of valuable artifacts which were left untouched during the robbery.