Part of the attraction to Santa Muerte, as several sources familiar with the devotion explained, is that she is seen as a non-judgemental saint that can be invoked for some not-so-holy petitions. Ukrainian Catholic bishops in US beg prayers for peace in their homeland Read article Now I estimate there's some 10-12 million devotees, mostly in Mexico, but also significant numbers in the United States and Central America," he said.
"She was unknown to 99 percent of Mexicans before 2001, when she went public. "She's basically the poster girl of narco-satanic spirituality," Chesnut said.Īccording to Chesnut's estimates, Santa Muerte is the fastest growing religious movement in the Americas - and it's all happened within the past 10-15 years. Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint," the only English academic book to date on the subject.ĭespite her condemnation from on high, Santa Muerte remains increasingly popular among criminals, drug lords and those on the fringe of society, as well as cultural Catholics who maybe don't know (or care) that she is condemned by the Church. "It's not every day that a folk saint is actually condemned at the highest levels of the Vatican," Andrew Chesnut, a Santa Muerte expert who has been studying the devotion for more than eight years, told CNA.Ĭhesnut is the Bishop Walter F.
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