Louisiana church spreads 100 gallons of holy water on the city and farms using a crop duster

A church in the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, used a crop duster airplane to spread at least 100 gallons of holy water on the city of Lafayette and its farms this week.

What are the details?

The diocese shared a photo of the holy water dusting Sunday on Facebook.

The post read, "Fr. Matthew Barzare and parishioners of St. Anne Church in Cow Island enlisted the help of a cropduster pilot to bless their community. They loaded 100 gallons of holy water into the plane and the pilot sprayed the water onto the town and the nearby farms."

"Parishioners also brought water from home to the airship to be blessed by Fr. Barzare. The blessing was the brainchild of L'Eryn Detraz, a missionary currently stationed in Ohio who is a native of Cow Island. A happy and blessed Christmas to everyone from St. Anne Church and parishioners!" the post concluded.

At the time of this writing, the post has received nearly 1,000 likes.

What else?

Barzare told NPR that the blessing was widespread.

"We can bless more area in a shorter amount of time," he said. "I blessed [the water] there, and we waited for the pilot to take off. I've blessed some buckets for people and such, but never that much water.

"Most parishes have a central location, but my area that I have to cover is a good 30 minutes to the next church, and so by plane, we realized, it might be the easiest way to sprinkle people's fields, rather than me going in a car to different locations," Barzare reasoned.