Apr 19, 2007 / 08:39 am
A Latin translation of the Bible that was brought from Spain to Honduras in 1537 has been stolen from a church in western region of the Central American country.
Police said two men carried out the robbery in the early morning hours last Sunday in the town of Macholoa, about 124 miles west of Tegucigalpa.
Amparo Reyes, a caretaker at the church, told police, “The subjects came to the town on Saturday and asked me to show them the Bible, and I did. The next day the Bible was not in the glass box that protected it.”
Reyes said the men used a metal bar to force open a rear door to the church and took other religious items along with the Bible. Police said an investigation into the incident was underway and that such items tend to be sold to foreign collectors who are always seeking out historical items of worth.
The church in Macholoa was built in 1537 by the Spanish conquistadores. Since 2005 at least 30 churches in Honduras have been burglarized.