Behind The Cult Of Santa Muerte

It doesn’t matter how much scholars want to establish a line of continuity between the pre-Hispanic gods of death, Posada’s Catrina, and the Santa Muerte. The “white lady” is a modern concept.

They call her “Santa Muerte,” and the name means Good Death or Holy Death. The term was borrowed from Catholic prayers asking for a peaceful demise from this word, in peace with God, satisfied with life. The medical nation has its own word for it. The Greek word is euthanasia, which also means “good death,” the right to die without unnecessary suffering.

Be it good or holy, the concept is not new.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a bizarre cult has grown from a solitary street altar in a poor neighborhood in Mexico City to a continental phenomenon which is now studied by scholars. It is the Santa Muerte cult. 

Perhaps its more original feature is that, while in Catholicism the good/holy death is a process, and in medicine is a procedure, the cult of Santa Muerte turned it into a person.

Its acolytes say that deep down it’s the same thing: the desire to have a death without physical pain, the hope to experience a peaceful demise.

But since in this new movement Death is a person, a third element must be added: the desire, the obligation among her followers, to please and worship her (in Spanish the word death is a feminine noun).

Her devotees call her loving names: beautiful one, skinny woman, cute girl, little mother, and even virgin.