A pastor in California subdued a burglar who broke into his church on Thanksgiving day with more than just a prayer and patience – he used jiu-jitsu.

In an interview with CNN, Pastor Nick Neves said he rushed to the First Family Church in the city of Antioch in western California early on Nov 28 after an alarm went off.

When he reached the church, he found a window smashed and a door propped open.

A man had used an axe to break the window and enter to the building, according to a Facebook post by the Antioch Police Department.

Mr Neves then came across the culprit as the man was leaving with his loot.

“I stopped him, and I told him he was essentially under citizen’s arrest, that the police would be there, and he needs to stop and wait for them,” he told CNN.

But the burglar tried to make a run for it, so Mr Neves tackled him.

“He began to fight with me,” the pastor recalled.

What the burglar probably did not expect to encounter was a holy man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of twisting limbs at unholy angles.

Mr Neves told CNN that he has been practising Brazilian jiu-jitsu since he was in high school.

Unlike other martial arts that focus on strikes and kicks, jiu-jitsu involves close-contact “grappling” holds and other techniques meant to bring opponents to the ground, gain leverage over them, and subdue them with joint locks and chokeholds...