The post of a woman who refuses to stop singing in St Peter's Basilica in Rome has provoked an online backlash.

The awkward video shows a unidentified woman who sings Jesus Is the Answer out loud inside the church despite respectful requests from Vatican security personnel to stop her, explaining that she was in a quiet zone.

After singing the line: "Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him, there's no other," she is told to stop then asks, "Can I sing outside?" and is told "Outside is fine."

The woman then continues to sing on the way to the exit when another guard approaches her and asks her to stop. When she says she only needs one more minute he replies: "No, sorry."

The video has been widely viewed and shared on multiple platforms.

While the woman had a beautiful voice, which was praised by the security guard, there has been strong condemnation of her actions.

Comments seem to focus on her wilful disruption to the church's solemn atmosphere and her desire to seemingly take away attention from God and towards her own musical performance.

"She can praise Jesus at home" said one viewer commenting on the clip on a Bored Panda article. 

"She literally sinned in the Vatican for her vanity," another Redditor remarked.

While a third called her a "narcissist in the wild."

Jesus Is the Answer is a classic 1973 gospel song by Andraé and Sandra Crouch. The message is built around a simple, powerful idea: whatever struggle or question you face in life, the answer is Jesus.

The video was originally posted by a TikTok account called @therealgabriela, who appears to have been a bystander filming and not the singer herself.