San La Muerte

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San La Muerte (Saint Death), depicted as a skeleton, generally with various accoutrements, is the focus of an autochthonous syncretistic folk devotional cult, resembling other Catholic saint cults but rejected by the Catholic church, which operates covertly, usually within the Catholic framework but occasionally outside of Catholicism and blended with various umbanda[1][2] or thelemic or as-you-like-it devil worship beliefs, in parts of Argentina (in the past especially in the provinces of Corrientes, Chaco, Misiones, and Formosa, but now well-established in greater Buenos Aires[3] and the prison system), Paraguay, and the southernmost portion of Brazil[4]. He is also called Señor De La Muerte (Lord of the Death),and Señor De La Buena Muerte (Lord of the Good Death, or, The Good Lord Death), or referred to as San Esqueleto (Saint Skeleton), mostly only in Paraguay.

Followers of San La Muerte generally do not pray to him as an abstract invisible being. Usually an image of San La Muerte is maintained, very frequently a statue or figurine, which may be the centerpiece of an elaborate altar, or sometimes a small picture, some believers even asserting that a tattoo[5] is efficacious. Sometimes San La Muerte is shown as a skeleton curled up in a fetal position, paricularly when the image is carved into a human finger bone ( this representation relates to one of the origin myths/backstories of San La Muerte, and also may be easier to fit given the small volume of fingerbone space). More often San La Muerte is shown as a skeleton in a monk's robe, the robe most frequently black or red in color, the skeleton typically holding a scythe, sometimes sitting on a throne[6], and often surrounded by a panoply of symbolic objects exemplifying San La Muerte's various spiritual attributes and characteristics, the scythe for example symbolizing justice, a set of scales embodying the delicate balance between life and death, or a globe representing his overarching power. Different types of petitions to San La Muerte call for different symbolic colors as well, as expressed for example in candles burned, with white to lift curses or oppression or for benefit of family members, red for love, black for protection or to curse others, green for legal problems, gold for money, and yellow for strength against addictions. Other common petitions include health, beauty, work, return of lost objects including lost livestock, and success in gambling or sporting events.

San La Muerte is the recipient of various traditional gifts or offerings such as whiskey (Chivas brand is mentioned[7]), and cigarettes (Benson and Hedges is acceptable). To increase the power of the statue or picture, devotees seek to get the item blessed in seven Catholic churches[8], which is difficult, because priests and the church are opposed to the San La Muerte belief (there is a less-demanding, perhaps in-the-meantime, school of thought that holds it sufficient if the image is blessed by two persons who are considered to be good Christians). Thus, to get their images blessed, followers resort to subterfuge and sleight-of-hand, for example, concealing a picture of San La Muerte underneath a picture of a normal saint; when the priest blesses the upper saint picture, it is felt that the San La Muerte underneath has been blessed as well.[9]

It is an excessive dismissal to characterize San La Muerte as "what the prisoners believe"[10], but among the criminal subset of San La Muerte believers in particular it is taught that a carved figure is more powerful if it is carved from the fingerbone of a dead baby[11], or from the skull of a little bird[12] (images typically are sculpted from bone, wood, or metal, lead in particular), or from church bells, or from a bullet that has already killed a good Christian man; furthermore, if such an image is sculpted by a currently-imprisoned fellow-devotee, it is deemed more powerful still, some in this subgroup even cutting themselves to place and seal such a small-size carved figure permanently under their skin, with the thought of gaining something like invulnerability and protection from harm and/or arrest[13]. In order to increase the power of an altar set-up, it should be concealed from the sight of those who disbelieve.[14] Since San La Muerte is not a proper saint, he has no feast day in the liturgical calendar, but his votaries have chosen days for him on an ad hoc basis, including Good Friday, November 1, August 13, August 15 and August 20. Explanations or descriptions of the initial origins of the cult are varied and diverse. Some say that it grew up among the Guarani Indians following the expulsion of their Jesuit missionaries in 1767, as a mixture of their previous beliefs wrapped up in misunderstood Catholic trappings, citing as correlative evidence the frequent depiction of San La Muerte as a skeleton in the fetal position, which is then cited as the preferred Guarani burial posture. Others again tell a legend of a real Catholic priest or monk, perhaps even a Jesuit, whose name has been lost in the mists of time, whose dedication to medicine among the downtrodden indigines brought him to unfavorable notice in some ecclesiastical power struggle at the viceregal court. Unjustly imprisoned, one day upon the opening of his cell door, said cleric's remains were found to be nothing more than a kneeling skeleton. Soon after, those who had falsely accused and assailed him began to perish, one after another, of mysterious illnesses.[15] There is no authoritative account of the origins of the San La Muerte cult at this time.

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