VATICAN CITY (REUTERS) - Some saints wear halos, other saints wear helmets.

The Vatican employees who manage Pope Francis' official Twitter account in English confused the two on Sunday (Oct 13) when tweeting about five new saints he canonised in St Peter's Square.

"Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new #Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession," the tweet read.

The hashtag #Saints used by the Vatican on the Pope's English account, however, had the fleur-de-lis after it, which is the one used by an American football team, the New Orleans Saints.

The New Orleans Saints have 1.5 million Twitter followers and Pope Francis has about 1.8 million on his English account alone.

So the tweet went viral as thousands of US football fans reacted, with many New Orleans Saints fans jokingly giving thanks for the perceived blessing.

"Praise the Lord and pass the football," one said.

The Saints, those from New Orleans, beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 13-6 on Sunday.