An incredible image began circulating after a tornado this past week in Grinnell, Kansas: The town's Catholic church, Immaculate Conception Parish, had its roof completely torn off on Sunday night.
But that's not all. According to the county sheriff, the candles inside the church were still burning, even though the roof was gone.
"What was cool about the Catholic church was that the roof was ripped off, but the candles were still burning," Sheriff Mesch said to the local media outlet KAKE. "It's amazing how that happened."
The tornado, said Mesch, hit about 15 to 20 homes in the small town located in northwestern Kansas, as well as the church building.
Thankfully, not a single person was killed or seriously injured by the tornado, even though one of the town's tornado sirens had malfunctioned, said the sheriff.
Aleteia reached out to Immaculate Conception Parish to learn more about the parish's rebuilding effort and extent of the damage, but did not hear back.
A bit of light
This is not the first time in recent months that parts of a church have inexplicably survived a natural disaster.
In January, firefighters in California discovered the intact tabernacle of Corpus Christi Church four days after a wildfire completely burnt the church building to the ground, Aleteia previously reported.
Captain Bryan Nassour said the scene "look(ed) like a nuclear bomb (had) gone off," and that "The whole community has been decimated."
When sifting through what remained of the church, Nassour found the tabernacle. The Blessed Sacrament inside was completely unharmed.
“It was one of the most uplifting things,” he explained. “Not everyone is religious, but they saw that and they’re like, ‘This is awesome.’ We’re doing something — at least one thing — that we can salvage for the community.”
