ROME — Police are searching an Italian mountain area beloved by Pope John Paul II for a stolen relic bearing his blood.

Vatican Radio decried the “sacrilegious theft” from tiny San Pietro della Ienca church near the Gran Sasso part of the Apennine mountains, where John Paul used to hike and ski.

Carabinieri paramilitary police Col. Andrea Ronchey in nearby L’Aquila told The Associated Press Monday that the relic — a bit of blood-soaked cloth kept inside a painted metal cross — was last seen on Thursday in the church.

John Paul, who died in 2005 and will be made a saint April 27 during a Vatican ceremony, had celebrated Mass in the church.