Agence France Press reported that an Argentine pastor was fired upon at point blank range and survived thanks to his Book of Psalms deflecting the bullet.

Mauricio Zanes Condori, 38, “was trying to talk two thieves out of robbing his church, located in the town of Rodeo del Medio. One of the thieves aimed his handgun at Zanes Condori’s chest and fired at a distance of two meters (about seven feet). The criminals immediately fled, and churchgoers who were watching in horror as the event unfolded, called for an ambulance,” reported the AFP.

The bullet hit the Book of Psalms Condori was holding to his chest. The bullet was slowed down and its trajectory defected enough such that the pastor received only a scratch on his chest. Condori thanks God for the happy outcome. “That leads me to believe in a God that takes care of me,” he told the online publication The Andes.

Not an uncommon phenomenon, apparently. As this report notes, President Theodore Roosevelt was saved from an assassin’s bullet thanks to a wad of one of his notoriously long speeches that was folded up in his breast pocket.