Santa Muerte

Santa Muerte can be translated into English as either "Saint Death" or "Holy Death", although R. Andrew Chesnut, a scholar of the history of Latin America and a professor of religious studies, believes that the former is a more accurate translation because it "better reveals" her identity as a folk saint. A variant of this is , which is translated as "Most Holy Death" or "Most Saintly Death", and devotees often call her during their rituals. Santa Muerte is also known by a wide variety of other monikers: the Skinny Lady ( or ), the Bony Lady (), the White Girl (), the White Sister (), the Pretty Girl (), the Powerful Lady (), the Godmother (), ('Mother'), (), (), (), (), ('Saint Sebastienne' or 'Holy Sebastian') or ('Beautiful Lady Sebastienne'). ==History==

(or Mictlancihuatl), the skeletal Aztec goddess of death After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the worship of Mictēcacihuātl (or Mictlancihuatl), the skeletal Aztec goddess of death, diminished but was never eradicated. Judith Katia Perdigón Castañeda has found references dating to 18th-century Mexico. According to one account, recorded in the annals of the Spanish 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. Another syncretism between pre-Columbian and Catholic beliefs involving death can be seen in Day 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 or candy in the shape of skulls. Perdigón Castañeda, Thompson, Kingsbury, and Chestnut have countered the argument that Santa Muerte's origins are not Indigenous as 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. At the beginning of the 20th century, José Guadalupe Posada created a similar, but secular, figure by the name of Catrina, a female skeleton dressed in fancy clothing of the period. 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 is Diego Rivera's mural painting Dream 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 folklore, encapsulating Posada's viewpoint that death is an equalizer. The new religious movement of Santa Muerte first came to widespread popular attention in Mexico in August 1998, when police arrested the notorious gangster Daniel 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. At present, Santa Muerte can be found throughout Mexico and also across the United States and Central America. There are videos, websites, and music composed in honor of this folk saint. and the single fastest-growing new religious movement in the Americas. ==Attributes and iconography==

Santa Muerte is a personification of death. Unlike other Latin American folk saints, Santa Muerte is not, herself, seen as a dead human being. She is associated with healing, protection, financial wellbeing, and assurance of a path to the afterlife. Although there are other death saints in Latin America, such as San La Muerte, Santa Muerte is the only female saint of death in the Americas. Iconographically, Santa Muerte is a skeleton dressed in female clothes or a shroud, and carrying both a scythe and a globe. 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. ==Veneration==

Rituals associated with Santa Muerte , Mexico Rituals dedicated to Santa Muerte include processions and prayers with the aim of having a miracle granted. 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. 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) 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. 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. 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 of Santería, a syncretic Afro-Cuban faith brought to Mexico by Cuban migrants. Here the seven colors are gold, silver, copper, blue, purple, red, and green. Shrine of the Most Holy Death , Mexico City 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. Color symbolism is central to devotion and ritual. There are three main colors associated with Santa Muerte: red, white, and black. 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 and consecration, 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. The black votive candle is lit for prayer in order to invoke ''La Flaca's'' protection and vengeance. It is associated with "black magic" and witchcraft. It is not regularly seen at devotional 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. 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. 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 the drug war in Mexico has escalated, Santa Muerte's veneration by drug bosses has increased and her image is seen again and again in various drug 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. 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 in love magic during the colonial era in Mexico, which derived from the love magic being brought over from Spain. The Spanish Grim Reapress fused with the indigenous conceptualizations of death are at the root of ''La 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. The majority of anthropological references to Santa Muerte between the 1940s and 1980s cite her roles as a lover sorceress. 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 and rose water for passion, binding stick to unite the lovers, cinnamon for prosperity, and several others depending on the specific ritual. ==In the United States==

in California's San Francisco Bay Area The new religious movement of Santa Muerte was established in the United States , brought to the country by Mexican and Central American immigrants. American scholar of religious studies Andrew Chesnut suggests that there were tens of thousands of devotees in the U.S. by 2012. Devotion to Santa Muerte is primarily visible in cities with large Mexican and Mexican-American populations, such as New York City, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Tucson, and Los Angeles. 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 of Danish descent, while the New Orleans Chapel of the Santisima Muerte was founded in 2012 by a Non-Hispanic White devotee. 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. Compared to the Catholic Church in Mexico, the official reaction in the U.S. is muted. The U.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. ==Sociology==

, Mexico City, displaying the saint's Indigenous Mexican and ancient Aztec characteristics. The new religious movement of Santa Muerte is present in all social classes of Mexican society, although the majority of devotees are either underemployed workers or from the urban working class. However, negative media coverage of the worship and condemnation by the Catholic Church in Mexico and certain Protestant 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 of superstition. Association with the LGBTQ+ community Santa Muerte is also revered and seen as a saint and protector of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities in Mexico. 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 in same-sex marriage ceremonies performed in Mexico. The now-defunct Traditionalist Mexican-American Catholic Church, 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 in Queens, New York. 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, a pastor 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. Association with criminality Santa Muerte's association with criminal activities and organizations has a long history throughout Mexico and the United States. Santa Muerte's resemblance to the Grim Reaper has generated controversy around whether she should be worshipped or frowned upon, with national Catholic Churches and dioceses having regarded the followers of Santa Muerte as devil-worshippers. Mexican authorities have linked Santa Muerte's devotees with prostitution, drugs, kidnappings, and homicides after police have found shrines and figures of the death saint in many incidents. In the Mexican and U.S. press, devotion to Santa Muerte is often associated with violent crimes, organized crime, kidnappings, extortions, prostitution, and the illegal drug trade. She is a popular religious figure in prisons, both among inmates and staff, and shrines dedicated to her can be found in many cells. Altars with images of Santa Muerte have been found in many drug houses, both in Mexico and the United States. In 2025, shrines and altars dedicated to Santa Muerte were discovered in Iztapalapa 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. Ritual killings in Mexico, seemingly inspired by or associated with Santa Muerte, have occurred during the height of the Felipe Calderón presidency, with his declaration of war against the drug cartels and criminal gangs in Mexico after his inauguration in December 2006. Silvia Meraz, a Mexican serial killer and cult leader, was convicted of three murders which took place between 2009 and 2012 in Nacozari, Sonora; the victims were murdered as human sacrifices to Santa Muerte. In November 2024, a local religious leader devoted to Santa Muerte was gunned down at an altar dedicated to the skeleton figure. In December 2010 David Romo Guillén, founder and archbishop of the Traditionalist Mexican-American Catholic Church, an independent Catholic denomination devoted to the worship of Santa Muerte, was arrested by Mexican authorities on charges of managing funds of a kidnapping gang linked to a Mexican drug cartel, Mexican drug lords, like those of La 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. == Media and material circulation ==

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. 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". 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. 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. Online culture 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. Information spaces discussing Santa Muerte on the Internet vary widely, with published websites, articles, and blogs framing around her violent and occult relations. Borderlands media, media reflecting intersectionality in the cultures and identities along the U.S/Mexico border, continues Santa Muerte’s criminal relations. Texas as a metaphysical cultural space where living identity is defined beyond location into akin experience and perception generates folk creation and publicity. 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. Social ethnography 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. 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. Santa Muertistas used the platform and dedicated it to instant and digital prayer and healing. Material culture 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. 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. ==Opposition and persecution==

(Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary), and Jesús Malverde on sale at a shop on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States Since the mid-20th century and throughout the 21st century, the new religious movement of Santa Muerte and her devotees have been regularly discriminated, ostracized, and socially excluded both by the Roman Catholic Church and various Evangelical-Pentecostal Protestant churches in Mexico and the rest of Central America. The Roman Catholic Church has condemned devotion to Santa Muerte in Mexico and Latin America as blasphemous and satanic, 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 of narco-culture; Santa Muerte has been defined by some news outlets as a "narco-saint". The Mexican Catholic Church has also officially condemned the worship of Santa Muerte because most of her rites are modeled after Catholic liturgy, Despite many attempts by the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches to undermine the devotion to Santa Muerte in Mexico and elsewhere, and religious discrimination and accusations towards her followers, the new religious movement of Santa Muerte has enjoyed meteoric growth and spread across the American continent since the early 2000s, and is considered by academic expert Andrew Chesnut to be the single fastest-growing new religious movement in the world. ==See also==