Saint Death Cult Draws On Pre-Christian Roots


Martin Barillas takes a closer look at the growing cult of "Saint Death" among "unaffiliated" persons, and finds many of its characteristics date to Pre-Christian times in the Americas


Monday, April 11, 2005
Martin Barillas


"Santa Muerte" – Saint Death or Holy Death– is the focus of a deathly Mexican cult that has gained a so-far undetermined number of adherents on both sides of the illusory barrier that divides the United States from Mexico.

It made news in the US in early March when its putative leader led a demonstration in Mexico City protesting against the Mexican government’s current reconsideration of his group’s status as an officially registered "church."

Removal of this status would forbid it from legally soliciting donations or owning property. Sounding a lot like the ACLU or other US and European civil libertarians, the marchers for St. Death brandished banners during a March rally in Mexico City shouting "We are not criminals" and "Respect religious freedom"!

While their dispute is with the Mexican government, much of their anger is directed at the Catholic Church, which has warned the faithful to beware of the cult and its tendency towards Satanism. The bishop of León, Guanajuato State, Mexico, complained to the Mexican government last year that the organizers of the cult had fraudulently used the name "Catholic" in their moniker.

Cult spokesman David Romo Guillén, who styles himself as a bishop, declared that his group "The Mexico-US Tridentine Catholic Church" or "The Traditional Catholic Mex-USA Church" has temples in Mexico and prayer groups in the US – including Texas, California, and Washington DC. However, a spokesman of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington DC in an email response to Spero News declared that he "had no knowledge" of the cult, while no response was forthcoming from the Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese about St. Death.

Adherents of Santa Muerte come from all social sectors in Mexico, according to some observers such as Mexican author Homero Aridjis, who is also president of the International PEN organization. Even so, in violent prison riots and other disturbances over the last month in Mexico, the image and the growing influence of the death cult were obvious. According to Aridjis, criminal narco-traffickers are very religious and their shrines to Santa Muerte have been found during police raids on their homes and hideouts. Aridjis, who has written a novelized account of his contacts with the cult, says that its adherents include not only the most marginalized sectors of Mexican society, such as prostitutes and narco-traffickers, but also police officers and powerful politicians seeking deliverance or advantage over their enemies.

However, Dr. Timothy Steigenga, renowned religion researcher at Florida Atlantic University, averred that the cult’s adherents come from a population segment he designates as "unaffiliated" to either the Catholic Church or the numerous, and growing, Protestant churches in Mexico and Central America. While not likening Santa Muerte to Pentecostal Christianity, Steigenga said in an email response to Spero News that research about these "unaffiliated" persons suggests "that this may be a group from which Pentecostals find converts and/or to which former Pentecostals gravitate. In other words, many of the non-affiliated find themselves marginalized in situations that motivate them to become ‘seekers’. Thus, cults like the Santa Muerte cult as well as Pentecostal churches, Afro Brazilian religions, and other religious groups find converts among this group."

According to press reports from California, Santa Muerte iconography is increasingly found as merchandise offered at stores called "botánicas" that, while they have long served the local Latino populace, are now attracting non-Hispanic customers seeking new forms of spirituality. At the "botánicas", customers can purchase not only traditional herbal remedies and Santa Muerte merchandise, but also Catholic devotional imagery such as St. Christopher medallions. In one report, a local observer of the Santa Muerte cult posited that since the Second Vatican Council in 1960s, Hispanic Catholics felt a vacuum when some traditional devotional practices were abandoned by the Catholic Church. Since the cult of Santa Muerte uses some familiar ritual forms and artifacts (e.g. candles, liturgy, statues, and offerings), it may fill this spiritual void for some people. However, Professor Steigenga said, "I don’t think we can blame Vatican II for the upswing in syncretism or the growth of Pentecostalism. Rather, all of these religious changes are responses to a similar set of socio-political conditions, external religious actors, and the broader fissure within Latin American Catholicism."

Catholic Church authorities concur that Santa Muerte seeks to lull the uninformed into believing that the cult represents an authentic form of Christianity. Apparently lending credence to this assertion, Santa Muerte cult spokesman Romo has spoken of himself to the press as "bishop" and further emulates the Catholic Church by wearing garb typical of Catholic clerics. Romo and other "priests" of Santa Muerte even hear confessions, but espouse a theology at odds with any recognizable form of Christianity. Reuters news service helped along the farce by referring to Romo as a "Catholic" priest, while the Mexican newspaper "La Reforma" refers to the cult as "Catholic, albeit not Roman". The main shrine to Santa Muerte in Mexico City is referred to as "Parroquia de la Misericordia" – Mercy Parish. Candles flicker before the Grim Reaper, while the faithful come to pray on their knees and beg for the intercession of this death angel. Seeming to hedge on their devotion to death personified, worshipers can also revere there the icon of the Virgin of Guadalupe or an image of St. Francis of Assisi that are also found at this temple to Death.

Called by various names, for example "La Santísima", Most Holy, "La Flaca" –Skinny Girl -, and "Blanquita" – Little White Girl - her devotees come to temples in tough Mexico City neighborhoods such as Tepito to worship a bizarre skeletal image robed in red, white, or black according to the season. She bears the scythe of the Grim Reaper and holds a red apple symbolizing wealth or plenty.

Worshipers leave offerings such as money, food, jewelry, and cigarettes. Frequently, she bears a rosary as well. They ask for favors that the patroness of innocent life, the Virgin Mary – Our Lady of Guadalupe – will not provide: sexual prowess, or the death and defeat of their enemies. And, according to popular belief among her devotees, Saint Death demands payment for her favors. If Saint Death is denied, she demands retribution on God’s orders in the form of the life of one of the devotees’ family members.

According to some observers, the modern cult to Death and its images stems from the 1960s, although its ultimate origins are mysterious. For example, in the ancient Jewish pantheon of demiurges, the angel of death is named Azrael. Some analysts point to Spain, or to Africa and its animist traditions, as the origin of some analogous folk beliefs, such as the fear of the Evil-Eye. Even the ancient Celts of Britain and Ireland revered skulls and severed heads, used them as chalices, and believed that these human remains emanated some divine power.

But Mexico has native religious beliefs that pre-date the 1521 Spanish conquest and the arrival of the Catholic faith. Aztec and Mayan art and imagery are replete with images of death in the form of skull-adorned temples and deathly idols. Human sacrifice was offered by Mexicans’ ancestors to placate pagan gods and ensure the fertility of the earth. Before the Conquest, as many as 60,000 human lives were offered to the Aztec deities in as little as four days. That cult of death was sometimes personified by "Mictlantecuhtli" – a god who is represented as a skeleton or flayed man. Mass baptisms of Native Americans and catechisms in native languages offered by the first Spanish missionaries in the 1500s were not enough to wipe away generations of non-Christian, non-Western beliefs. Over the centuries a popular system of belief emerged that melded Christian and non-Christian teachings. This syncretism is still evident among the Mayan peoples of southern Mexico and neighboring Guatemala where, while they may call themselves "Catholic", they sacrifice animals and pour libations onto idols left by their ancestors. In Guatemala, despite the success of Pentecostal missionaries in gaining converts over the last few decades, the phallic cult of "San Simón" or "Maximón" flourishes among those who otherwise may go to church on Sunday. And the prominence of pre-Christian Mayan cults was symbolized last year in the person of Manuel Colom – unsuccessful leftist Guatemalan presidential candidate and self-described Mayan shaman.

The cult of Santa Muerte, which pre-dates the Catholic Church in Latin America and is older than Christianity itself, likewise flourishes even while masquerading as authentic Christianity and offering a perennial challenge to Christian ministrations. Lamenting the failure the Catholic Church has had in adequately addressing the needs of his flock, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City said last month that "Catholics are easy prey for the snares of imposters because of the deficient evangelization and religious formation we (the hierarchy) have provided to the faithful." (article found here) edit for missing update link: http://www.watchermagazine.com/?cat=39



Reference: Three decades of crimes and confrontation by cults and cult-like extremist groups.

Now this is a cool topic

The first thing that came to mind was that to better understand where these adherents of Santa Muerte are coming from we need to understand that their culture today, and more so in the past, typically has a different perspective on Death primarily symbols of death such as skulls. Dia de los Muertos, the national holiday known as the Day of the Dead also has Aztec and Mesoamerican roots but isnt frowned upon by the Mexican authorities and I'm sure some cultures may see Catholics wearing crucifixes as somewhat morbid as well, oh wow thats i nice tortured guy nailed to a cross gold pendant you have there.... lol.

And instead of frowning on people's choices, suppressing their religious beliefs or calling them a cult full of criminals perhaps the Catholic Church and the Mexican government should address these people's problems, maybe address the resons behind more and more people turning to Death for comfort and support. Maybe its because of the poverty, lack of education and choices for the future that these people have turned to Death for comfort. Maybe its because the two major institutions in Mexico, the Church and government, only pay lip service to their needs, two rich and powerful groups constantly telling them how much they care about them and want to help them but not doing anything for them. I'm sure many people that revere this Saint Death would still consider themselves Catholics but the harder the Catholic Church pushes them the less they will identify with the Church, of course I cant see the Catholic Church seeing this "cult" as being remotely Catholic. Makes me wonder if you took the number of Catholics in Central and South America and subtracted all of those that practiced beliefs the Church saw as being un-Catholic how many Catholics there would actually be there?



Drinks her whiskey straight and chain smokes.... sounds like something worth believing in to me lol.

Leave it to you to find a reason to party with the dead.

The Aztec culture referred to Saint Death as Mictlantecuhtli. He had a wife, that would watch over the dead, Mictecacihuatl. It is her effigy that is carried through the towns at festivals of this nature, and she's also known as "little white girl" because she's draped in white lace and adornments.

It's interesting this ancient South American religion is , as is reported in the follow-up link, no longer considered a viable religion by the Mexico government. Considering it's ancient history in the region. But what is extraordinary is that this is a saint of death and the catholic christian faith doesn't recognize it, when it to is what is tantamount to a death cult. It worships the dead, makes saints of those that were martyred for the faith, eats flesh and drinks blood of a prophet and is baptized to swear allegiance to that faith and insure the soul remain in the faith after death. Death! Is everywhere in christendom.


Death cultsby Micha F. Lindemans
The veneration of the dead plays an important role in mythology and (nature) religions. It is inspired by fear for wrath of the deceased, and by obtaining their council and favors. A large part of the religious life concentrated therefore around the death cults, a/o. in Egypt and the peoples in Asia Minor. This led to the erection of huge monuments (mastabas, pyramids, grave-temples, and rock-graves) in Egypt. But also in ancient China, Mesopotamia, and India the dead were honored by impressive monuments and elaborate rituals.
Although the death cults and burial rituals may be different among the nature religions, the reasons are the same; either affection towards the deceased or else fear for the soul wandering in the vicinity of the corpse and which must be appeased (with offerings, prayers, incantations). Some of those rituals have as purpose to mislead the soul by having the body disappear (for instance, through a hole in the wall or in the roof). Common is also a form of cannibalism where the body is eaten in order to obtain some of the strength of the deceased.

The mummification of the dead, which originated in the belief of life after death, was an important part of the death cults too. The dead were often accompanied by tools, food and drink, and money to ensure them of a good after-life. Some rulers had their servants killed in advance, so they could prepare their master's arrival and continue to serve them, even after death.

Death is more of a partier than some believe lol. Take Baron Samedi for instance, a Haitian, Voudon personification of Death...



If you are a Guns N' Roses fan and you are having a hard time picturing Baron Samedi, just think Slash lol.

Haiti is also known for its history of death and violence, from the days of slavery, to the Haitian rebellion against the slave owners, to their long line of desposts and dictators, the extreme poverty that manifests into violence and of course the latest Western intervention by Canadian, French and American forces.

It seems that people that live in despair and are frequently exposed to violence and death begin finding comfort in death and personify Death, typically as something celebratory.

A European case of celebratory personification of Death, the Danse Macabre....



Party on