He was the Grinch who tried to steal Christmas. 

A down-and-out parishioner at a Queens church tried to rob a Catholic deacon at knifepoint before Sunday service — then sat down for mass until cops showed up to slap on the cuffs.

Deacon Adalberto Montero said he calmly talked down the knife-wielding nut — identified by cops as Miguel Bonano, 64 — after he knocked on the door of St. Gertrude and St. Mary Star of the Sea in Far Rockaway just as mass was about to take place at around 9:30 a.m. Dec. 21. 

“He stood there looking at me. All of a sudden, he pulled the knife out of his pocket and said, ‘Give me the money,'” Montero recalled Tuesday.

“I told him quietly and calmly, ‘Put the knife away. You’re gonna hurt yourself, you’re gonna hurt me. Put it away,” Montero told The Post. “He didn’t leave so I closed the door on him, figuring he’d leave. I opened the door again and he was still there. I said, ‘Listen, you gotta leave.’

“He walks back and sits down.”

Montero said he was shocked by the encounter. 

Bonano is a regular at Sunday service, typically sitting quietly in the fifth row, second seat in — which is where he planted himself after the botched robbery attempt, the deacon said.

Bonano – who lives in a homeless shelter about a half-mile from the church – was still around the house of worship on Beach 38th Street near Beach Channel Drive when cops arrived, police said.

“I took out a knife and I tried to rob the guy,” he allegedly admitted to cops after being taken into custody, according to a criminal complaint.

The blade was recovered from his jacket pocket, the filing said.

Bonano was charged with attempted robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, Queens prosecutors said. 

He was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond during his arraignment before Judge Lana Schlesinger in Queens Criminal Court.

Bonano has 21 prior arrests dating back nearly four decades – but hasn’t landed in cuffs since 2002 when he was nabbed for drug possession, police said. 

His first arrest dates back to 1987, when he allegedly tampered with a subway turnstile and was found with five tokens, four glass pipes and another person’s bank card, cops said. 

He has also been arrested for robbery, trespass, grand larceny and possession of burglar’s tools, police said. 

He is due to appear in court next on Friday on the new charges. 

“I hope he doesn’t come back,” Montero said. “What am I going to say? I can’t tell him, ‘No, don’t come back. I wouldn’t turn anyone away, but I would keep an eye on him.”