Brother André’s Heart

André Bessette, often known as Brother André, rose to prominence in the Canadian Catholic Church in the early 20th century. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982 and later declared a saint in 2010. However, all of this occurred several years after his passing. Brother André passed away in 1937, and his heart was immediately taken and placed inside a reliquary that was displayed at St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. The heart was taken in 1973 and kept for a $50,000 ransom. Rewind a few decades.

The heart was thought to be lost for a year because no ransom was paid. Then, in 1974, a well-known Montreal attorney named Frank Shoofey got a call from an unknown caller claiming to know where Brother André's heart was. Shoofey and several other police officers went to the basement of an apartment building in the city as per his directions and discovered the reliquary concealed inside a locker, with the seal intact and the heart in tact. What caused the thief's change of heart—pun clearly intended—also remains a mystery, as does his identity.