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Devotees praying to Santa Muerte in Mexico. Santa Muerte can be translated into English as either "Saint Death" or "Holy Death", although R. Andrew Chesnut, Ph.D. in Latin American history and professor of Religious studies, believes that the former is a more accurate translation because it "better reveals" her identity as a folk saint.
Sporting gloves and a red ribbon to ward off evil, Ecuadoran police raiding a drug den apprehensively inspect an altar to Santa Muerte-- a Mexican "death saint" adopted by local gangs as their own ...
Church services are conducted every Sunday and attendees often invoke the name of the Santa Muerte to intercede before God, rather than other saints, and leave offerings to the folk saint. The church follow the Roman Catholic practice of baptism, holy communion, confirmations, weddings, exorcisms and the praying of rosaries. [5]
Raising Santa Muerte images during a service for Santa Muerte in Tepito. The colonia is home to two major places of worship of Santa Muerte. The first and best known is the first public sanctuary to be dedicated to the image at the home of Enriqueta Romero Romero.
The rituals connected and powers ascribed to San La Muerte are very similar to those of Santa Muerte; the resemblance between their names, however, is coincidental. In Guatemala, San Pascualito is a skeletal folk saint venerated as "King of the Graveyard." He is depicted as a skeletal figure with a scythe, sometimes wearing a cape and crown.
In the case of Santa Muerte, some followers are known to commit human sacrifice on behalf of drug cartels. [2] [3] The Drug Enforcement Administration says that narco-saints embolden drug cartels, and make them more dangerous, particularly because drug traffickers are "not afraid of death" if they worship them. [4]
San Pascualito (also known as San Pascualito Muerte and El Rey San Pascual) is a folk saint associated with Saint Paschal Baylon and venerated in Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas. He is called "King of the Graveyard." [1] His veneration is associated with the curing of disease, and is related to the Latin American cult of death.
Catholic church leaders have rebuked worship of Santa Muerte (meaning "Saint Death or "Holy Death") as "spiritually dangerous" superstition, paganism and demonic heresy.