Woman unknowingly prays to ‘Lord of the Rings’ figurine for years (photos)

A great-grandmother from Brazil has accidentally been praying to a figurine of Elrond

, and elf from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, after mistaking it for Saint Anthony, the late Portuguese priest and patron saint of lost things.

Gabriela Brandão, a make-up artist from Florianópolis, Brazil, made the discovery last week and posted a series of photos of the Elrond figurine on Facebook. She wrote:

“My daughter’s great-grandmother prays to this figure of Saint Anthony every day, but looking more closely….”

 Gabriela had noticed that something wasn’t right about the figurine, so she started doing some online research. She managed to find an exact replica on an online store, which listed it as Elrond, an Elven character from The Lord of the Rings fantasy universe.

But trying to explain the mix-up to the great-grandmother actually took a bit of effort. Gabriela told Buzzfeed:

“We tried to explain right away but she didn’t understand at first. The next day we explained again and she understood and we got her a new figure of Saint Anthony.”

Gabriela’s Facebook post went viral almost instantly, with over 3,700 shares on the social network, and hundreds of funny comments.

It was also picked up by dozens of international news outlets and even got the attention of actor Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the blockbuster trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

 “A woman in Brazil has apparently been praying to Elrond, thinking he’s Saint Anthony. She’s found herself a new idol,” he wrote on Facebook.

Elrond, in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, is the lord of Rivendell, the elvish kingdom. In Sir Peter Jackson’s trilogy, he is portrayed by actor Hugo Weaving.

Saint Anthony was canonised in the year 1232 by Pope Gregory the Ninth, and is widely known as the patron saint of lost people and the recovery of lost items.