Quote:Her worshippers vary from those pushed to the fringes of society to occultists, drug lords, and prisoners – and the Santa Muerte has garnered more followers in the past decade than any religion before it.
Santa Muerte, the folklorish female deity of Mexican-American culture, has gone from relative anonymity to being at the center of the fastest growing religious movement in the world. Her followers, from drug lords and prisoners to hard-working families, often call her Santisima Muerte — “most holy death.”
The highest annals of the Catholic Church, the Vatican itself, has condemned Santa Muerte as satanic. But this hasn’t stopped her worshippers from every corner of the earth to bowing at her altar.
Although she has only become a popular figure in the last 10 to 15 years, Santa Muerte (literally translated as “Saint Death”) has been around for centuries. (...)
Santa Muerte’s rise in popularity has coincided with the rising death toll from the drug wars in Mexico over the last 15 years. It’s very possible that the two events are not unrelated, since, as one priest explains, “a lot of devotees who feel like death could be just around the corner – maybe they’re narcos, maybe they work in the street, maybe they’re security guards who might be gunned down – they ask Santa Muerte for protection.”
![[Image: santa-muerte-statue.jpg]](https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/santa-muerte-statue.jpg)
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