Monk Caught with 'Saint's Skeleton

A Cypriot monk was detained at a Greek airport when a skeleton was discovered in his luggage. The remains were those of a nun who had died four years prior. The monk said she was a saint and he was taking her remains to Cyprus. Remains of saints are often displayed and revered by believers in the Greek Orthodoxy.

However, the nun was considered a saint by neither the Greek nor Cypriot Orthodoxy, proper. A sect may have ordained her so, though. Cyprus' Archbishop said it sounded like "the work of charlatans with a financial interest."

The monk was charged with theft and desecration of the dead, misdemeanors in Greece. He was also suspended from his duties for three months.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011