This is a topic I found out about a little while ago. I’m really happy I did because it allows me to talk about one of my favorite topics: Religion and its relationship to the masses. It also allows me to get on my soapbox a little, an opportunity I never pass up. First though, a bit of background on popular worship. Some people argue that it’s bad that Christian churches have saints because that's no different that worshiping pagan gods. However, all mainstream religions have this trend even when their founders actively speak against it.
For example, one of the Buddha’s main messages is “Don’t wait for the gods to relieve your suffering. They can’t. You must free yourself from suffering” (I’m paraphrasing). Today there are thousands of shrines, all over the world, in which you can pray to the Buddha to relieve your suffering. So this trend seems to fulfill a specific need, and I think the Christian church was actually smart to create a system that both fulfills that need, and reinforces their message. (Be devoted to God and imitate those people who did extraordinary works and committed extraordinary sacrifices in His name.)
With that background cleared, I can explain Santa Muerte, Holy Death. Santa Muerte is a folk saint thought to have arisen from the combining of pre-Christian Latin American gods of death, with traditional Christian figures like the Virgin Mary and even the secular European figure of the Grim Reaper. Although, religious historians like R. Andrew Chestnut say that private worship of this St. Death goes back to the 1700s, the cult of Santa Muerte as it's sometimes called really took off in 2001 after Enriqueta Romero formed a large sidewalk shrine to dedicated to the saint outside her home in Tepito (a Mexico City suburb noted for poverty and crime).
That shrine has become the focal point for a massive religious following, something Chestnut dubs ”the fastest growing religious movement today.” At first glance, one might argue that it's her ability to seemingly grant miracles that accounts for her large following, judging from all the anecdotes of people getting jobs, surviving illnesses, and finding love after praying to Santa Muerte. I think, however, the main reason for her popularity is rather her wide variety of patrons.
While Santa Muerte is often depicted as a “Narco Saint” in American media, that belies the universality of her following. She is the patron of everyone from the LGBT community to those trying to escape poverty, to lost causes, and even to bicycle messengers. Perhaps because as a Pre-Christian figure and thus an “outsider" among saints, she has a following among many who feel like outsiders in the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church has condemned Santa Muerte, for both her pagan origins and being a representation of the power of death, something that goes against the idea that Christ triumphed over death. However, I feel that misses the point. People often suggest that the modern Catholic Church is disconnected from the real suffering of the downtrodden and spiritually lost. The Church needs an inclusive figure like Santa Muerte to fulfill this deeply felt need among the people for a figure that understands life’s difficulty and what’s it’s like to be an outsider.
