Bizarre moment when a man sprints through a crowded church with a toddler in hand before jumping onto an altar and leaving the child under the statue of the Virgin Mary in Tenerife

Video has surfaced of a man in Spain running through a packed church to place a toddler under a Virgin Mary in Tenerife.

The unknown man can be seen running to the altar with a child – presumably his son – in his arms, before placing it under the statue.

The bizarre incident occurred as hundreds of worshipers marked the holy Octava del Carmen service in the San Agustin neighborhood of Los Realejos, a town on the Spanish island of Tenerife, on July 30.

While the municipality watches in horror, the images show how the man sprints down the aisle with the toddler on his shoulders.

The man, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, shrugs off officials trying to stop him and begins to climb the shrine to get to the statue on the altar.

Then, as the congregation gasps in horror, the statue begins to wobble, but rises again as the confused youth halts at the feet of the Virgin Mary.

The man then jumps back to the ground as the footage ends.

He tried to leave the church, but was reportedly stopped by service visitors who convinced him to retrieve the toddler from the shrine.

The man seemed very upset and crossed himself repeatedly as he walked back to the altar.

He then reportedly turned to those present and knelt before asking for forgiveness.

The parishioners reportedly applauded as he left.

The mind-boggling sacrifice took place during an “Octava del Carmen” mass, a Catholic service that celebrates an event in which an apparition of the Virgin Mary is said to have saved the city of Carmelo from a drought.

The man, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, shrugs off officials trying to stop him and begins to climb the shrine to get to the statue on the altar. Then, as the congregation gasps in horror, the statue begins to wobble, but straightens itself out as the confused youth remains at the Virgin Mary’s feet.

To clarify why this is happening, one Reddit user commented, “For anyone unsure what is happening here, there are traditions in Spain where the more fanatical worshipers send babies and children over crowds so that they will touch the virgin.” The idea is that physical proximity ensures that the virgin will protect them in the future life.’

A similar tradition called El Colacho, which roughly translates as “The Devil’s Jump,” sees men dress up as the devil in red and yellow suits.

They then jump over babies born in the past twelve months lying on mattresses in the street with the idea that if they jump over the babies, the men dressed as devils will save them from their sins.

“Weirdest quest in the game,” joked one Reddit user.

“That’s a desperate man trying to heal his devil child. Either that or movies have lied to me,” added another.

El Colacho is said to take away any evil from the babies as he leaps over them in the medieval religious custom that takes place to celebrate the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi.

The event is a reminder of the battle between good and evil and is believed to help the babies on their way to a good life. In addition, sin is believed to be expelled from the entire city in the process.

Over the centuries, there have been no reports of injuries to the babies, but the festival is still considered one of the riskiest in the world.

Pope Benedict XVI had asked Spanish priests to distance themselves from the event.

The exact origins of the ritual are unclear, but Spanish Catholics celebrate the festival across the country with colorful processions of dancers dressed as demons and angels.

Castrillo de Murcia has only 500 inhabitants, but is well known in Spain thanks to the festival.