DUBLIN — The head of a mummified Crusader, laid to rest in a Dublin church some 800 years ago, was stolen and a crypt vandalized, the police in Ireland discovered on Monday.

A second mummified body, believed to belong to a nun who died 300 years ago, was also badly damaged during a break-in at St. Michan’s church.

But the worst treatment was reserved for the crypt’s most famous occupant, a 13th-century corpse known as “The Crusader.”

“His legs were pushed up into his torso, his arms were moved to one side and his head has been decapitated,” said the Rev. David Pierpoint, the vicar of St. Michan’s and archdeacon of Dublin. “His head is gone.”