Great-grandma's St. Anthony figurine turns out to be 'Lord of the Rings' elf

FLORIANOPOLIS, Brazil, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- A Brazilian great-grandmother was shocked to discover the St.Anthony figurine she had been praying to every day was actually Elrond from The Lord of the Rings.

Gabriela Brandao of Florianopolis said in a Facebook post something seemed odd about the St. Anthony figurine that her daughter's great-grandmother has been praying to every day.

Brandao did some research online and found an identical figure -- Elrond, the character played by Hugo Weaving in The Lord of the Rings films.

"We tried to explain right away but she didn't understand at first," Brandao told Buzzfeed. "The next day we explained again and she understood and we got her a new figure of Saint Anthony."

Brandao's Dec. 30 post dubbed her story "the funniest discovery of 2016."