Our Lady of Holy Death Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte | |
|---|---|
 Illustration of Santa Muerte | |
| Lady of Shadows, Lady of the Night, White Lady, Black Lady, Skinny Lady, Bony Lady,Mictēcacihuātl (Lady of the Dead) | |
| Honored in | Mexicanfolk Catholicism andNeo-Paganism,[1][2] primarily inCentral America,Mexico, andSouthwestern United States (scant worship in theCaribbean,Canada, andWestern Europe)[1][2] |
| Majorshrine | Santuario de la Santísima Muerte in Santa María Cuautepec,Tultitlán,State of Mexico[3] |
| Feast | August 15,Day of the Dead (November 2),[3] and many public shrines celebrate the date of their founding |
| Attributes | Human female skeleton clad in a robe holding a variety of objects including a Scythe, Globe, scale of justice, hourglass, and oil lamp |
| Influences | A wide variety ofsupernatural powers[3] (love, prosperity, good health, fortune, healing, safe passage, protection against witchcraft, protection against assaults, protection against gun violence, and protection against violent death)[3] |
Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte (Spanish:[ˈnwestɾaseˈɲoɾaðelaˈsantaˈmweɾte]; Spanish forOur Lady of Holy Death), often shortened toSanta Muerte, is anew religious movement,female deity,folk-Catholic saint,[4][5] andfolk saint in Mexicanfolk Catholicism andNeo-Paganism.[1][2]: 296–297 Apersonification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to theafterlife by her devotees.[6] Despite condemnation by theRoman Catholic Church[7] andEvangelicalProtestant denominations,[8] her following has become increasingly prominent since the turn of the 21st century.[9]
Santa Muerte almost always appears as a female skeletal figure, clad in a long robe and holding one or more objects, usually ascythe and aglobe.[10] Her robe can be of any color or pattern, as more specific images of the figure vary widely from devotee to devotee and according to the ritual being performed or the petition being made.[11]
Her present day following was first reported in Mexico by American anthropologists in the 1940s and was an occult practice until the early 2000s. Most prayers and other rituals have been traditionally performed privately at home.[12] Since the beginning of the 21st century, worship has become more public, starting inMexico City after a believer named Enriqueta Romero founded her famous Mexico City shrine in 2001.[12][13][14] The number of believers in Santa Muerte has grown over the past two decades[when?] to an estimated 12 million followers who are concentrated in Mexico,Central America, and theUnited States, with a smaller contingent of followers in South America, Canada and Europe. Santa Muerte has two similar male counterparts in Latin America, the skeletal folk saintsSan La Muerte of Argentina and Paraguay andRey Pascual of Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico.[14] According to R. Andrew Chesnut,Ph.D. inLatin American history andprofessor ofreligious studies, Santa Muerte is at the center of the single fastest-growingnew religious movement in theAmericas.[9]
Santa Muerte can be translated into English as either "Saint Death" or "Holy Death", although R. Andrew Chesnut,Ph.D. inLatin American history andprofessor ofreligious studies, believes that the former is a more accurate translation because it "better reveals" her identity as a folk saint.[15][16][17] A variant of this isSantísima Muerte, which is translated as "Most Holy Death" or "Most Saintly Death",[15] and devotees often call herSantisma Muerte during their rituals.[18]
Santa Muerte is also known by a wide variety of other monikers: the Skinny Lady (La Flaquita orLa Flaca),[19] the Bony Lady (la Huesuda),[19] the White Girl (la Niña Blanca),[20] the White Sister (la Hermana Blanca),[15] the Pretty Girl (la Niña Bonita),[21] the Powerful Lady (la Dama Poderosa),[21] the Godmother (la Madrina),[20] "Madre" (mother),Señora de las Sombras ("Lady of Shadows"),Señora Blanca ("White Lady"),Señora Negra ("Black Lady"),Niña Santa ("Holy Girl"),Santa Sebastiana ("Saint Sebastienne", i.e. "HolySebastian") orDoña Bella Sebastiana ("Beautiful Lady Sebastienne").[22]
After theSpanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the worship ofMictēcacihuātl (or Mictlancihuatl), theskeletalAztecgoddess ofdeath, diminished but was never eradicated.[23] Judith Katia Perdigón Castañeda has found references dating to 18th-century Mexico. According to one account, recorded in the annals of theSpanish Inquisition,Chichimecs in central Mexico tied up a skeletal figure, whom they addressed as "Santa Muerte", and threatened it with lashings if it did not perform miracles or grant their wishes.[24] Another syncretism betweenpre-Columbian and Christian beliefs involving death can be seen inDay of the Dead commemorations. During these commemorations, many Mexicans flock to cemeteries to sing and pray for friends and family members who have died. Children partake in the festivities by eating chocolate orcandy in the shape of skulls.[25] Perdigón Castañeda, Thompson, Kingsbury,[26] and Chesnut have countered the argument that Santa Muerte's origins are not Indigenous proposed by Malvido, Lomnitz, and Kristensen; stating that Santa Muerte's origins derive from authentic Indigenous beliefs. For Malvido this stems from Indigenist discourse originating in the 1930s. Nevertheless,ethnoarchaeological research by Kingsbury and Chesnut as well as archival work by Perdigón Castañeda, has established clear links between pre-Columbian death deity worship and Santa Muerte supplication.
In contrast to the Day of the Dead, overt veneration of Santa Muerte remained clandestine until the early 2000s. When it went public in sporadic occurrences, reaction was often harsh, and included the desecration of shrines and altars.[24] At the beginning of the 20th century,José Guadalupe Posada created a similar, but secular, figure by the name ofCatrina, a female skeleton dressed in fancy clothing of the period.[12] Posada began to evoke the idea that the universality of death generated a fundamental equality amongst all human beings. His paintings of skeletons in daily life and of La Catrina were meant to represent the arbitrary and violent nature of an unequal society.[27]
Modern artists began to reestablish Posada's styles as a national artistic objective to push the limits of upper-class tastes; an example of Posada's influence isDiego Rivera's mural paintingDream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central, which features La Catrina. The image of the skeleton and the Day of the Dead ritual that used to be held underground became commercialized and domesticated. The skeletal images became that of folklore, encapsulating Posada's viewpoint that death is an equalizer.[27]
Skeletons were clad in extravagant dresses with braids in their hair, altering the image of Posada's original La Catrina. As opposed to being the political message Posada intended, the skeletons of equality became skeletal images which were appealing to tourists and the national folkloric Mexican identity.[27]
Veneration of Santa Muerte was documented in the 1940s in working-class neighborhoods in Mexico City, such asTepito.[28] The new religious movement of Santa Muerte first came to widespread popular attention in Mexico in August 1998, when police arrested the notorious gangsterDaniel Arizmendi López and discovered a shrine to the saint in his home. Widely reported in the press, this discovery inspired the common association between Santa Muerte, violence, and criminality in Mexican popular consciousness.[29] At present,[when?] Santa Muerte can be found throughout Mexico and also across the United States and Central America.[24] There are videos, websites, and music composed in honor of this folk saint.[12]
Since 2001, there has been "meteoric growth" in Santa Muerte belief, largely due to her reputation for performing miracles.[30] In the late 2000s, the founder of Mexico's first Santa Muerte church, David Romo, estimated that there were around 5 million devotees in Mexico, constituting approximately 5% of the country's population.[31]
By the late 2000s, Santa Muerte had become Mexico's second-most popular saint, afterSaint Jude,[32] and had come to rival the country's "national patroness", theVirgin of Guadalupe.[21] The meteoric rise of this new religious movement has engendered considerable controversy. In March 2009, theMexican Army demolished 40 roadside shrines near the U.S. border.[32] Around 2005, the new religious movement was brought to the United States by Mexican and Central American immigrants, and by 2012 had tens of thousands of followers throughout the country, primarily in cities with large Mexican and Mexican-American populations.[33] As of 2016-2017[update], devotion to Santa Muerte was the fastest-growingnew religious movement in the world, with an estimated 12 million followers,[34] and the single fastest-growing new religious movement in theAmericas.[9] TheCOVID-19 pandemic saw further growth in the new religious movement as many believed that she would protect them against the virus.[35]
Santa Muerte is apersonification of death.[36] Unlike other Latin American folk saints, Santa Muerte is not, herself, seen as a dead human being.[36] She is associated with healing, protection, financial wellbeing, and assurance of a path to the afterlife.[18]
Although there are other death saints in Latin America, such asSan La Muerte, Santa Muerte is the only female saint of death in the Americas.[18] Iconographically, Santa Muerte is a skeleton dressed in female clothes or a shroud, and carrying both a scythe and a globe.[36][23] Santa Muerte is distinguished as female not by her skeletal form but rather by her attire and hair. The latter was introduced by a believer named Enriqueta Romero.[30]
The two most common objects that Santa Muerte holds in her hands are a globe and ascythe. Her scythe reflects her origins as theGrim Reaper (la Parca of medieval Spain),[24] and can represent the moment of death, when it is said to cut a silver thread. The scythe can symbolize the cutting of negative energies or influences. As a harvesting tool, a scythe may also symbolize hope and prosperity.[11] The scythe has a long handle, indicating that it can reach anywhere. The globe represents Death's vast power and dominion over the earth,[23] and may be seen as a kind of a tomb to which we all return.[11]
Other objects associated with Santa Muerte include scales, an hourglass, an owl, and an oil lamp.[11] The scales allude to equity, justice, and impartiality, as well as divine will.[23] An hourglass indicates the time of life on earth and also the belief that death is not the end, as the hourglass can be inverted to start over.[23] The hourglass denotes Santa Muerte's relationship with time as well as with the worlds above and below. It also symbolizes patience. An owl symbolizes her ability to navigate the darkness and her wisdom; the owl is also said to act as a messenger.[37] A lamp symbolizes intelligence and spirit, to light the way through the darkness of ignorance and doubt.[11] Owls in particularare associated with Mesoamerican death deities such asMictlantecuhtli and seen as evidence of continuity of death worship into Santa Muerte.[38] Some followers of Santa Muerte believe that she is jealous and that her image should not be placed next to those of other saints or deities, or there will be consequences.[25]
Many artists, particularly Mexican-American artists, have worked with Santa Muerte's image. One of the images considered to be the most controversial in Mexico is the fusion of Santa Muerte and the Virgin of Guadalupe, into what is sometimes known as GuadaMuerte. This image has been very polemical for many Mexicans as it features Santa Muerte dressed like the Virgin of Guadalupe, in blue veil with stars on it, red dress, with a fiery yellow halo behind her head and often in a praying pose. It has, according to news sources, been so upsetting to theCatholic Church that Santa Muerte leaders in Mexico have advised against its use, while in the Santa Muerte community some leaders and devotees are angered that their powerful, formidable folk saint would be conflated with a completely separate entity, the Virgin of Guadalupe, as the practices are different on many levels.[39][40]
Rituals dedicated to Santa Muerte include processions and prayers with the aim of having a miracle granted.[13] Some believers of Santa Muerte remain members of the Catholic Church,[22] while others are cutting ties with the Catholic Church and founding independent Santa Muerte churches and temples.[41] Santa Muerte altars generally contain one or multiple images of the saint, generally surrounded by any or all of the following: cigarettes, flowers, fruit, incense, water, alcoholic beverages, coins, candies and candles.[23][13] Tobacco is also used for personal cleansing and for cleansing statues of Santa Muerte.
According to popular belief, Santa Muerte is very powerful and is reputed to grant many miracles. Her images are treated asholy and can grant miracles in return for the faith of the believer. AsSeñora de la Noche ("Lady of the Night"), she is often invoked by those exposed to the dangers of working at night, such as taxi drivers, bar owners, police, soldiers, and sex workers. As such, devotees believe she can protect against assaults, accidents, gun violence, and all types of violent death.[42]
Her effigies are dressed differently depending on what is being requested. Usually, her vestments are differently colored robes, but it is also common for the effigies to be dressed as a bride (for those seeking a husband)[23] or in European medievalnun's garments similar to female Catholic saints.[12] The colors of Santa Muerte's votive candles and vestments are associated with the type of petitions made.[43]
White is the most common color and symbolizes gratitude, purity, or the cleansing of negative influences. Red is for love, lust and passion. It can also signify emotional stability. The color gold signifies economic power, success, money, and prosperity. Green symbolizes justice, legal matters, or unity with loved ones. Amber or dark yellow indicates health. Images with this color can be seen in rehabilitation centers, especially those for drug addiction and alcoholism.[44] Black represents total protection against black magic or sorcery, or conversely negative magic or for force directed against rivals and enemies. Blue candles and images of the saint indicate wisdom, which is favored by students and those in education. Brown is used to invoke spirits from beyond while purple, like yellow, usually symbolizes health.[43] More recently black, purple, yellow and white candles have been used by devotees to supplicate Santa Muerte for healing of and protection fromcoronavirus as documented by Kingsbury and Chesnut, the leading researchers on Santa Muerte.[45] Other more recent colors include silver, transparent and red with black gown Santa Muerte which are used for particular petitions.
Devotees may present her with a polychrome seven-color candle, which Chesnut believed was adopted from the seven powers candle ofSantería, a syncretic Afro-Cuban faith brought to Mexico by Cuban migrants.[46] Here the seven colors are gold, silver, copper, blue, purple, red, and green.[23][11] In addition to the candles and vestments, each devotee adorns their own image in their own way, using U.S. dollars, gold coins, jewelry, and other items.[13]
Santa Muerte has no official annual feast day but November 2, Day of the Dead, appears to be becoming the favored date. Many larger shrines and temples hold annual celebrations on the date of their founding. The most prominent is November 1, when the believer Enriqueta Romero celebrates her at her historic Tepito shrine where the famous effigy is dressed as a bride.[22] Others celebrate her day on August 15.[23]
According to Chesnut, the new religious movement of Santa Muerte is "generally informal and unorganized".[21] Since worship of this folk saint has been, and to a large extent still is, clandestine, most rituals are performed at altars in the homes of devotees.[12] Recently public shrines have been mushrooming across Mexico. The one on Dr. Vertiz Street inColonia Doctores is unique in Mexico City because it features statues ofJesús Malverde and Saint Jude along with Santa Muerte. Another public shrine is in a small park on Matamoros Street very close toPaseo de la Reforma.[24]
Shrines can also be found in the back of all kinds of stores and gas stations. As veneration of Santa Muerte becomes more accepted, stores specializing in religious articles, such asbotánicas, are carrying more and more paraphernalia related to her worship. Historian R. Andrew Chesnut has discovered that many botanicas in both Mexico and the U.S. are kept in business by sales of Santa Muerte paraphernalia, with numerous shops earning up to half of their profits on Santa Muerte items.[37] This is true even of stores in very well known locations such as Pasaje Catedral behind theMexico City Cathedral, which is mostly dedicated to stores selling Catholic liturgical items. Her image is a staple in esoterica shops.[13]
There are those who now call themselves Santa Muerte priests or priestesses, such as Jackeline Rodríguez inMonterrey. She maintains a shop in Mercado Juárez in Monterrey, wheretarot readers,curanderos, herbal healers, and sorcerers can also be found.[47]
The establishment of the first public shrine to the image began to change how Santa Muerte was venerated. The veneration has grown rapidly since then, and others have put their images on public display, as well.[12]In 2001, Enriqueta Romero built a shrine for a life-sized statue of Santa Muerte in her home in Mexico City, visible from the street. The shrine does not hold Catholic masses oroccult rites, but people come here to pray and to leave offerings to the image.[22] The effigy is dressed in garbs of different colors depending on the season, with the Romero family changing the dress every first Monday of the month. This statue of the saint features large quantities of jewelry on her neck and arms, which are pinned to her clothing. It is surrounded by offerings left to it, including: flowers, fruits (especially apples), candles, toys, money, notes of thanks for prayers granted, cigarettes, and alcoholic beverages that surround it.[22]
Enriqueta Romero considers herself the chaplain of the shrine, a role she says she inherited from her aunt, who began the practice in the family in 1962.[22] The shrine is located on 12 Alfarería Street inTepito,Colonia Morelos. For many, this Santa Muerte is thepatroness saint of Tepito.[28] The house also contains a shop that sells amulets, bracelets, medallions, books, images, and other items; the most popular item sold there is votive candles.[13]
On the first day of every month Enriqueta Romero or one of her assistants lead prayers and the recitation of the Santa Muerterosary, which lasts for about an hour and is based on the Catholic rosary.[13][37] On the first of November the anniversary of the Tepito Santa Muerte shrine erected by Enriqueta Romero is celebrated. This Santa Muerte is dressed as a bride and wears hundreds of pieces of gold jewelry given by the faithful to show gratitude for miracles granted, or to ask for one.[28]
The celebration officially begins at the stroke of midnight of November 1. Thousands of faithful turn out to pray the rosary. For purification,marijuana smoke is used instead ofincense, which is traditionally used for purification by Catholics. Food such as cake, chicken withmole, hot chocolate, coffee, andatole are served during the celebrations, which features performances bymariachis andmarimba bands.[28]
Santa Muerte is a multifaceted saint, with various symbolic meanings and her devotees can call upon her for a wide range of reasons. In herbal shops and markets one can find a plethora of Santa Muerteparaphernalia like thevotive candles that have her image on the front and in a color representative of its purpose. On the back of the candles are prayers associated with the color's meaning and may sometimes come with additional prayer cards.[48] Color symbolism is central to devotion and ritual. There are three main colors associated with Santa Muerte: red, white, and black.[49]
The candles are placed on altars and devotees turn to specific colored candles depending on their circumstance. Some keep the full range of colored candles while others focus on one aspect of Santa Muerte's spirit. Santa Muerte is called upon for matters of the heart, health, money, wisdom, and justice. There is the brown candle of wisdom, the white candle of gratitude andconsecration, the black candle for protection and vengeance, the red candle of love, lust and passion, the gold candle for monetary affairs, the green candle for crime and justice, the purple candle for healing.[50]
The black votive candle is lit for prayer in order to invokeLa Flaca's protection and vengeance. It is associated with "black magic" and witchcraft. It is not regularly seen atdevotional sites, and is usually kept and lit in the privacy of one's home. To avert from calling upon official Catholic saints for illegal purposes, some drug traffickers will light Santa Muerte's black candle to ensure protection of shipments of drugs across the border.[50] Nevertheless, black candles may also be used for more benign activities such as reversing spells, as well as all forms of protection and removing energetic blockages.[49]
Black candles are presented to Santa Muerte's altars that drug traffickers used to ensure protection from violence of rival gangs as well as ensure harm to their enemies in gangs and law enforcement. As thedrug war in Mexico has escalated, Santa Muerte's veneration by drug bosses has increased and her image is seen again and again in variousdrug houses. Ironically, the military and police officers that are employed to dismantle the White Lady's shrines make up a large portion of her devotees. Furthermore, even though her presence in the drug world is becoming routine, the sale of black candles pales in comparison to top selling white, red, and gold candles.[51]
One of Santa Muerte's more popular uses is in matters of the heart. The red candle that symbolizes love, lust, and passion is helpful in various situations having to do with love. Her initial main purpose was inlove magic during thecolonial era in Mexico, which derived from the love magic being brought over from Spain. The Spanish Grim Reapress fused with theindigenous conceptualizations of death are at the root ofLa Flaca's existence, in so that the use of love magic in Europe and that of pre-Columbian times that was also merging during colonization may have established the saint as a supernatural love doctor.[48]
The majority of anthropological references to Santa Muerte between the 1940s and 1980s cite her roles as a lover sorceress.[52] The candle can be lit for Santa Muerte to attract a certain lover and ensure their love. In contrast though, the red candle can be prayed to for help in ending a bad relationship in order to start another one. These love miracles require specific rituals to increase their love doctors' power. The rituals require several ingredients including red roses androse water for passion, binding stick to unite the lovers,cinnamon for prosperity, and several others depending on the specific ritual.[52]
The new religious movement of Santa Muerte was established in the United Statesc. 2005, brought to the country byMexican and Central American immigrants.[53] American scholar ofreligious studies Andrew Chesnut suggests that there were tens of thousands of devotees in the U.S. by 2012.[54] Devotion to Santa Muerte is primarily visible in cities with large Mexican and Mexican-American populations, such asNew York City,Chicago,Houston,San Antonio,Tucson, andLos Angeles.[25][16] There are fifteen religious groups dedicated to her in Los Angeles alone,[23] which include the Temple of Santa Muerte onMelrose Avenue inEast Hollywood.[55]
In many places across the US her popularity has spread beyond Hispanic communities. For instance, the Santisima Muerte Chapel of Perpetual Pilgrimage is maintained by a woman ofDanish descent, while the New Orleans Chapel of the Santisima Muerte was founded in 2012 by aNon-Hispanic White devotee.[56][57]
As in Mexico, some elements of the Catholic Church in the United States are trying to combat Santa Muerte worship, especially in Texas, New Mexico, and Chicago particularly.[25][16][58][59] Compared to the Catholic Church in Mexico, the official reaction in the U.S. is muted. TheU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not issued an official position on this, the fastest growing new religious movement in the country and in the entire world.[16] Opposition to the veneration of Santa Muerte took a violent turn in late January 2013, when one or more vandals smashed a statue of the folk saint, which had appeared in theSan Benito, Texas, municipal cemetery earlier that month.[60]
The new religious movement of Santa Muerte is present in allsocial classes ofMexican society, although the majority of devotees are eitherunderemployed workers or from the urbanworking class.[17][61] Most are young people, in their teens, twenties, or thirties, and are also mostly female.[17][53] A large following developed amongMexicans andHispanic/Latino Americans who are disillusioned with thedominant, institutional Catholic Church and, in particular, with the inability of established Catholic saints to deliver them from poverty, corruption, and violence.[16][17]
Devotion is based mostly among people with scarce resources, excluded from the formalmarket economy, as well as the judicial and educational systems, primarily in the inner cities and the very rural areas.[23] Devotion to Santa Muerte is viewed as a "cult of crisis" by some scholars. Devotion to the skeleton saint has expanded rapidly during economic and social hardships, which tend to affect the working classes more.[17] Santa Muerte tends to attract those in extremely difficult or hopeless situations, but also appeals to smaller sectors ofmiddle class professionals and even the affluent.[12][43] Some of her most devoted followers are those who commitpetty crimes, often committed out of desperation, such assex workers,pickpockets, andthieves.[17][23]
The worship of Santa Muerte also attracts those who are not inclined to seek the traditional Catholic Church for spiritual solace nor guidance, as it is part of the Mexican establishment; many followers of Santa Muertelive on the margins of civil society or outside of it entirely.[17] Manystreet vendors,taxi drivers, vendors ofcounterfeit merchandise,sex workers,pickpockets,drug traffickers, andgang members who follow the Mexican folk saint are not practicingRoman Catholics orProtestants.[17][23] In essence, they have created their ownnew religious movement that reflects their realities, hardships, identity, and practices, especially since it speaks to the violence and struggles for life that many of these people face.[17][23] Conversely, bothpolice forces and themilitary in Mexico can be counted among the faithful who ask for blessings on their weapons and ammunition.[23]
While worship is largely based in poor neighborhoods, Santa Muerte is also venerated in affluent areas, such as theCondesa andCoyoacán districts ofMexico City.[62] However, negative media coverage of the worship and condemnation by theCatholic Church in Mexico and certainProtestant denominations have influenced public perception of the cult of Santa Muerte. With the exception of some artists and politicians, some of whom perform rituals secretly, those in higher socioeconomic strata look upon the veneration with distaste as a form ofsuperstition.[12]
Santa Muerte popularity is massive in Mexico with it being home to majority of her followers, Santa Muerte has been viewed as either thesaint of death and/or thesaint of healing, with both sides being integrated with her practices. There have been people that praise Santa Muerte and are attracted by her, since many of her followers believe that, with enough worship and prayer, there have been links to healing, protection, and love if Santa Muerte is satisfied with them.[63]
Santa Muerte is also revered and seen as a saint and protector of thelesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities in Mexico.[17][64][65][66][67] Many LGBTQ+ people ask her for protection from violence, hatred, diseases, and to help them in their search for love. Her intercession is commonly invoked insame-sex marriage ceremonies performed in Mexico.[68][69] The now-defunctTraditionalist Mexican-American Catholic Church,[70][71][72] anindependent Catholic denomination devoted to the worship of Santa Muerte,recognized gay marriages and performed religious wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples.[73][74][75][76]
Santa Muerte has continued to see an increase in worship by members of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the United States and Mexico, where many have developed an identity with queerness in association with Santa Muerte, with rallies being held inQueens, New York.[77] In 2022, during a Fall event in the Cambridge area held by queer students in order to offer different perspectives on affirming integration with queerness and religious identities, apastor from the area made an appearance to show support of the rally and speak out on how he used to speak to churches and defend Christianity as not being opposed to queerness.[78]
Santa Muerte's association withcriminal activities and organizations has a long history throughoutMexico and theUnited States. Santa Muerte's resemblance to theGrim Reaper has generated controversy around whether she should be worshipped or frowned upon, withnational Catholic Churches and dioceses having regarded the followers of Santa Muerte asdevil-worshippers.[79] Mexican authorities have linked Santa Muerte's devotees with prostitution, drugs, kidnappings, and homicides after shrines and figures of the death saint have been found by police in many incidents.[80] In the Mexican and U.S. press, devotion to Santa Muerte is often associated withviolent crimes,organized crime,kidnappings,extortions,prostitution, and theillegal drug trade.[81] She is a popular religious figure in prisons, both among inmates and staff, and shrines dedicated to her can be found in many cells.[82][62][83]
Altars with images of Santa Muerte have been found in manydrug houses, both in Mexico and the United States.[23] Among Santa Muerte's more infamous devotees are kidnapperDaniel Arizmendi López, known asEl Mochaorejas, andGilberto García Mena, one of the bosses of theGulf Cartel.[62][83] In March 2012, theSonoraState Investigative Police announced that they had arrested eight people formurder for allegedly having performed ahuman sacrifice of a woman and two ten-year-old boys to Santa Muerte.[84] In 2025, shrines and altars dedicated to Santa Muerte were discovered inIztapalapa when the Secretariat of Citizen Security and Attorney Office launched a search in the Colonia Renovacion and arrested three people who had doses of drugs and altars of the Santa Muerte.[85]
Ritual killings in Mexico, seemingly inspired by or associated with Santa Muerte, have occurred during the height of theFelipe Calderón presidency, with hisdeclaration of war against the drug cartels and criminal gangs in Mexico after his inauguration in December 2006.[86]Silvia Meraz, a Mexicanserial killer and cult leader, was convicted of three murders which took place between 2009 and 2012 inNacozari,Sonora; the victims were murdered as human sacrifices to Santa Muerte.[87] In November 2024, a local religious leader devoted to Santa Muerte was gunned down at an altar dedicated to the skeleton figure.[88]
In December 2010 David Romo Guillén, founder and archbishop of theTraditionalist Mexican-American Catholic Church, anindependent Catholic denomination devoted to the worship of Santa Muerte, was arrested byMexican authorities on charges of managing funds of a kidnapping gang linked to aMexican drug cartel,[71] sentenced to 66 years in prison forkidnapping andextortion,[71] and the church stripped of legal recognition on similar grounds in 2006.[70][71][72] Mexican drug lords, like those ofLa Familia Michoacana cartel, take advantage of "gangster footsoldiers" vulnerability and enforced religious obedience to establish a sacred meaning to their cause that would keep their soldiers disciplined.[89]
Santa Muerte is addressed as and known under multiple social adaptations, as digital and material culture play a part in circulating and sharing Santa Muerte as an intermediary[90]. Digital ethnography on the folk saint displays a correlation for increased devotion, as devotees create specialized online communities across various platforms as a means of spreading her agenda and services they formulate, such as healing, interventions, and “miracles”[91]. Major issues regarding health, such as COVID, also act as catalysts for media coverage, in turn, feeding the functionality of Santa Muerte as an outlet for faith[92]. Mediums, methods, and manner of circulation also vary across regions, with differing perspectives in the borderlands of Texas, the region along the Rio Grande, the U.S/Mexico border[93].
News on Santa Muerte per the figure’s criminal association primarily originates from journalistic mediums, both written and visual, ranging from newspapers and websites to films and documentaries[94]. Information spaces discussing Santa Muerte on the Internet vary widely, with published websites, articles, and blogs framing around her violent and occult relations[94]. The folk saint’s perceptions across demographics relies on mass, mainstream media formats as a political and theological subject[95].
Borderlands media, media reflecting intersectionality in the cultures and identities along the U.S/Mexico border, continues Santa Muerte’s criminal relations[96]. Texas as a metaphysical cultural space where living identity is defined beyond location into akin experience and perception generates folk creation and publicity[97][98]. U.S media print continues to depict and affiliate the war on drugs with folk saints like Santa Muerte. TV and news commercialize this correlation, while social media and harmful “fake news” popularize the phenomena via “search” and “terms used” trends[99].
Social media is an influential outlet for Santa Muerte’s emergence. Santa Muertistas, a specialized term for devotees of the saint, with demographics primarily female, are spreading the saints’ agenda(s) via networking, posts and promotional speech[100]. Interaction in these online spaces builds a community where members are allowed active leading roles in distributing information and catering to the needs of each other[100]. This prestigious takeaway motivates social and spiritual development, where added involvement adds to the gendered appeal[100].
Widespread issues relating to health, such as COVID-19, have led to depictions of Santa Muerte’s services across media platforms, with a concentration on Facebook[101]. Santa Muertistas used the platform and dedicated it to instant and digital prayer and healing[101]. The digital community consistently posted virtual offerings, such as healing narratives and visuals, for Santa Muerte with intentions of rebuking the virus[102].
Markets are convenient spaces for material trade and transactions and hot spots for relics of worship. Juarez market in Monterrey, and others across Mexico, often sell items affiliated with religious faith and ritualistic devotion[103]. Household items, statues, designs, and crafts are popular amongst commercial production, as they’re flexible to incorporate in the home, allowing diversity and personalization for the devoted consumers[104].
Since the mid-20th century and throughout the 21st century, the new religious movement of Santa Muerte and her devotees have been regularlydiscriminated,ostracized, andsocially excluded both by theRoman Catholic Church and variousEvangelical-PentecostalProtestant churches in Mexico and the rest of Central America.[105][106][107][108]
TheRoman Catholic Church has condemned devotion to Santa Muerte in Mexico and Latin America asblasphemous andsatanic,[25] calling it a "degeneration of religion".[109] When Pope Francis visited Mexico in 2016, he repudiated Santa Muerte on his first full day in the country, condemning Santa Muerte as a dangerous symbol ofnarco-culture;[110] Santa Muerte has been defined by some news outlets as a "narco-saint".[4][5]
EvangelicalProtestant denominations in Mexico and Latin America have condemned it too, asblack magic and trickery.[12] TheRoman Catholic Church in Mexico has accused Santa Muerte devotees—many of whom were baptized in the Catholic religion despite the difference of belief and the fact that Santa Muerte churches and temples have instituted a separate baptism practice—of having turned to devil-worship.[16]Roman Catholic priests regularly chastise parishioners, telling them that death is not a person but rather a phase of life.[12] However, the Roman Catholic Church stops short oflabeling such followers as heretics, instead accusing them ofheterodoxy.[111] Other reasons the Mexican Catholic Church has officially condemned the worship of Santa Muerte is that most of her rites are modeled afterCatholic liturgy,[23] and some Santa Muerte devotees eventually split from the Catholic Church and began vying for control of church buildings.[16]
TheFederal government of Mexico has attempted on removing the Santa Muerte's influence among the people to attempt to stop the spread of her influence throughout the country and across the border to the United States. In controversial fashion the Mexican Government bulldozed nearly forty shrines throughout the US and Mexican border, destroying many places of worship, Since according to the military the Santa Muerte has integrated withnarco-culture.[112]
Despite the many attempts by the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches to undermine the devotion to Santa Muerte in Mexico and elsewhere, along with thereligious discrimination and accusations towards her followers, the new religious movement of Santa Muerte has enjoyed meteoric growth and spread across theAmerican continent since the early 2000s, and is considered by one of the leading academic experts, Andrew Chesnut, to be the single fastest-growing new religious movement in the world.[113]
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