Church leaders have appealed for thieves to return a sealed “time capsule” that was taken from St John’s Cathedral in Den Bosch.

The box contained personal messages that were written in 2022 and meant to be kept sealed for a century.

The intruders broke into the 16th-century cathedral on Wednesday night via the roof after climbing scaffolding that was being used for restoration work.

Stained glass windows around the dome were smashed and a fire extinguisher was set off inside the building.

Hundreds of townspeople, including the mayor, the bishop and the king’s commissioner for Noord-Brabant, contributed messages to the time capsule, which was contained in a blue box kept behind a fresco depicting the “All-Seeing Eye”.

“The damage caused by the break-in is obviously bad enough, but the box has been taken and that has a very different value,” said lay preacher Vincent Blom. “It’s a huge tragedy. We need to get the box back.”

Police are investigating the theft, but there are no cameras in the dome that could have identified the intruders, Blom said.

“The box is worth nothing to burglars,” he said. “Please bring it back instead of dumping it.”