The Santa Muerte: The Healer, Protector, and Guide to the Afterlife

The cult image, female divine being, and folk saint Nuestra Seora de la Santa Muerte (Spanish meaning: Our Woman of the Holy Death) is a cult image, female divine being, and folk saint in Mexican Neopaganism and folk Catholicism.

Her worshippers relate her with healing, security, and safe delivery to the afterlife simply because she's a personification of death. In spite of condemnation from Catholic Church leaders and, more just recently, evangelical movements, her following has grown substantially since the start of the twenty-first century.


Santa Muerte, who was initially portrayed as a male character, is now generally illustrated as a skeletal female figure dressed in a long cape and clutching several things, most typically a scythe and a world.

Let’s take a look at what she means or meant to people in Mexico, and what we can learn about it.