Holy Death in the Time of Coronavirus: Santa Muerte, the Salubrious Saint

Abstract

As Santa Muerte prayer cards and candles circulate in Mexico with petitions of protection against COVID-19, we consider death as doctor in these tumultuous times proving that the folk saint of death is not solely a narco-saint, as the press depicts, but is supplicated for miracles of COVID healing and protection from the virus. We not only reveal the importance of religion for coping with pandemics but also focus on the notion of death as healing and as a giver of life. We decolonize knowledge of Santa Muerte and explore the saint’s syncretic origins, hailing not only from the European Grim Reaper during times of plague but also from Indigenous thanatological epistemologies that account for her dual powers of gifting life and also doling out death.

Syncretic Santa Muerte: Holy Death and Religious Bricolage

“…And like most folk saints, Santa Muerte is amoral, therefore she may also be supplicated not only for good deeds but also bad, such as to bring death and bad luck to enemies. For this reason, Santa Muerte has often been mislabeled by the press, media and US law enforcement authorities as a narco-saint, that is to say a saint venerated solely by narco-traffickers (Kingsbury and Chesnut 2020a).In previous articles and a book, we demonstrated how the portrayal of Santa Muerte as narco-saint is erroneous and revealed the folk saint's many other roles, whether as matron saint of the drug war being supplicated by both sides of the law (Kingsbury and Chesnut 2020a), as protector of women in a state where gendered violence is widespread (Kingsbury 2020, Kingsbury andChesnut 2020c), or as a holy healer turned to for favors of health, especially in the current context of coronavirus (Kingsbury and Chesnut 2020b).…”

“…For women fearing femicide, Santa Muerte has taken on the role of protectress, she is also imagined as providing supernatural aegis to their children (Kingsbury 2020, p. 10). For those involved, velis nolis, in the drug industry which has overtaken much of the country, they imagine that the saint can both shield them from death and allow them to access its power to neutralize enemies (Kingsbury and Chesnut 2020b). As we will see, tapping into the perceived power of death is not a new idea in Mexico.…”

“…Devotees live, as we all do, with the knowledge that they will die. Moreover, in Mexico, where death looms large due to the drug wars, poverty, and now coronavirus (see Kingsbury and Chesnut 2020b) this truth is all the more apparent, and liminality may be a permanent state of being for many who live on the knife-edge of death. A devotee of Santa Muerte named Zaniyah, when asked why she worshiped the folk saint replied, as many other followers of the folk saint tend to, "porque lo unico seguro que hay es la muerte" (because the only thing that is certain is death) (Kingsbury 2020, p. 14).…”

“…In contrast to Mexican Santa Muerte who preserved the female identity of la Parca, Rey Pascual and San la Muerte are Skeleton Saints who most likely became male due to their syncretism with Catholic holy men. Spanish saint, Pascual Bailon in the case of Rey Pascual and Jesus, the Just Judge, for San la Muerte (see also Kingsbury and Chesnut 2020b).…”

At Death’s Door in Cancun: Sun, Sea, and Santa Muerte

“…This article is the result of a brief trip to Cancun in 2020. I have conducted fieldwork on Santa Muerte, in particular with the female followers of Oaxaca, since 2017, including with the Indigenous owner of a shrine in a village close to Tonameca (Kingsbury 2019, 2020, 2021; Kingsbury and Chesnut 2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2021). Although Yuri, her staff, and I only met briefly during my 2020 trip, after which COVID‐19 travel restrictions curtailed my work, we formed a long‐lasting relationship.…”