NEW YORK (AP) – The dig at ground zero for the long-lost remains of Sept. 11 victims has moved across the street to the lot of a destroyed church, where important relics, including the bones of three saints, may also be buried.

Since October, more than 400 bones have been unearthed from debris of a service road that was used to carry construction trucks in and out of the World Trade Center site after Sept. 11. The city, which oversaw the original cleanup of ground zero, is conducting a new search to find more remains of the 2,749 victims – 40 percent of whom remain unidentified.

Last week, two bones were recovered from the area where St. Nicholas’ Greek Orthodox Church stood, officials familiar with the search said.

Debris from both towers collapsed onto the church and its parking lot on Sept. 11. The site was paved over in the months after the attacks to be used a staging area for reconstruction at the site, making it a likely place to find long-buried debris and remains, those involved in the initial cleanup say. Part of the land involved includes a hut that was used by family members for private reflection at the site; it was relocated to another part of the site last week.

In the months after the attacks, the St. Nicholas congregants had some of their relics returned to them, including a small bell and cross, several Bibles and even wax candles that had not melted from the heat of the attacks, said Peter Drakoulias, a church board member.

But its most precious relic remains missing: a 600-pound, 2-foot-by-2-foot safe that contains church documents and a small enamel box containing three bone fragments less than a half-inch long, said Mr. Drakoulias. The bones are believed to be those of St. Nicholas – the church’s founding saint – St. Sava, and St. Katherine, he said.

“Our loss pales in comparison” to that of families who have never found their loved ones’ remains, said Mr. Drakoulias. But “anything that they find will be appreciated and considered a blessing.”

Since St. Nicholas’ was destroyed, the congregation’s 100 or so parishioners have gone to a Brooklyn congregation, returning to the spot where the church stood to celebrate its 90th anniversary in December. They have raised more than $4 million to rebuild the church nearby.

Mr. Drakoulias said the loss of the remains of the saints cannot compare to the loss of Sept. 11 victims who may be buried with them. “That said, perhaps there is some very small comfort to those families if they knew that their loved ones rested among such company.”

It wasn’t clear when excavation at the church site began. City officials would not provide information about the remains search last week. A spokesman for the mayor, John Gallagher, said a memo updating the effort would be made public this week.

The city has said it would dig up the entire service road, search hundreds of nearby manholes for remains and finish searching the former Deutsche Bank AG building that still sits across from ground zero, where more than 750 body parts were discovered in the last 18 months.

Forensic anthropologists are hand-sifting thousands of cubic yards of debris from the service road at a Brooklyn facility, recovering from four to 25 bones a day in recent weeks.

Although sifting continues, several people familiar with the search said digging has not gone on recently at the ground zero service road. Steel columns from the trade center, found several weeks ago impaled in the road, have not been pulled out, officials said.

Family members who haven’t ever received their loved ones’ remains are anxiously waiting for identifications; none have yet come from the newly recovered remains. The mother of a slain firefighter wishes the search were a higher, more public priority for the city.

“They would just rather that nobody paid attention to this,” said Sally Regenhard, whose son, Christian, was killed at the trade center. “We’re paying painful attention to this.”