Firefighters have rescued a 300-year-old Catholic idol from a fire at Shrine of Christ the King, and the clergy are taking it as a sign the congregation too will go on.
Early Wednesday morning, a fire started on the second floor of the church at 6415 S. Woodlawn Ave. when rags used to apply floor stain spontaneously combusted, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
The building is more than a church, and houses the 300-year-old statue of Christ the Child from Seville, Spain, as part of its duties as a place of pilgrimage for Catholics.
Priests at the shrine, who all escaped the fire unharmed, asked firefighters if they could rescue the idol and at noon firefighters carried the 3-foot-tall statue down the front steps of the shrine after retrieving it from where it was still standing on the central altar.