parishioners are Catholic and in their demands and prayers God, Christ and the Virgin of Guadalupe are always invoked, ‘because the Most Holy is no stranger to the Christian religion’, although the Catholic Church does not recognise her cult. The shrine of the Holy Death is placed in front of her house, surrounded by floral and fruits offerings (mainly apples, which symbolize abundance), votive offerings, candles, toys, notes, coins, sweets, cigarettes, cigars, alcoholic beverages in glasses and bottles.
In this place, the sculpture of the Most Holy -also called Señora de las Sombras (Lady of the Shadows), Señora Blanca (White Lady), Señora Negra (Black Lady), Niña Santa (Holy Nina), La Parca, La Flaca (The Skinny) – is two metres high. Her traditional figure is the skeleton of the Day of the Dead, but dressed as a virgin and saint with different coloured costumes, each of which has a special meaning. Bracelets of pearls, gold and silver with embedded gemstones hang from her neck, clothes, scythe, scale, metal arms and phalanges. These are offerings and gifts of those who thank her for some miracle or favour.
For over 40 years, the Romero family has been worshipping the Most Holy and they state that she does not care about the social or work background of her worshippers. People of different social conditions, as well as children, old people and women of the streets go to Alfareria Street, number 12.
Her worshippers change the clothes of the Holy Death every first Monday of the month; the colour is in accordance with the season and with the demands of her devotees. Red symbolizes love and passion; green, hope; white and blue, peace and pureness -the colours of the virgin Mary- because she usually wears these colours.
The feast of the Holy Death is on November 2, the Day of the Dead and the night before, on October 31, the devotees pray a rosary to dress her in white as a bride. Nocturnal rosaries take place on this day and on Mondays of every month to bless the images carried by her devotees. The people who visit her altar feel the same devotion as they do before Christ, the saints and the virgins; they cross themselves, they pray, they ask and they make offerings. The number of followers grows day by day; when the rosaries are prayed, the streets close to Alfareria Street are closed.
Sellers of all types gather around the ceremony: soft drinks, flowers, candles, figures of the Most Holy, clothes, leaflets with engravings and specific prayers for the rosary, and cigars, which apparently are what the Nina Blanca prefers.
Leonor Paredes, the aunt of Mrs. Romero, instilled this cult and began to practice it in 1962; however, evidence suggests that the devotion to the Holy Death probably dates from the 19th century, when shamans in Catemaco also paid homage to her for a long time.
Amongst the most frequent prayer requests made to the Holy Death is that of keeping the fidelity of the couple. There is a legend saying that the Holy Death was a woman who lived in Pre-Hispanic times and was deceived by her husband. The pain she felt when she saw her husband in the arms of another woman was such that she committed suicide. When God saw her suffering, he made her the patron saint of marriages. This is why she is now the protector of marital union, and she can do a lot of harm to an unfaithful husband, if his wife asks for it. For these same reasons, people ask the Holy Death for help so that one person feels attraction to another and they get married.
As the Señora de la Noche (Lady of the Night), she has a special preference for people who work once the Sun has set because of the dangers they are exposed. She helps taxi drivers, mariachis, bartenders, police officers, soldiers, waitresses, prostitutes, etc. She is the patroness and the defender against assaults, road killings, wounds by firearms, and against all types of violent death. It has been reported that she has prevented the death of devotees involved in road accidents.
You may also ask her for things that you would not dare to ask other saints, for example: the death of your enemy, rival or unfaithful partner; damage to the properties of those who feel envious or resentment, or make that all evil they have sent towards us turns against them. She is considered a righteous entity, since she does not grant whims, but gives everybody what they deserve. Therefore, her devotees are asked to live a righteous life and fulfil the promises they make to the Most Holy.
Chapter 2 – Why is the worship of the Holy Death Expanding?
To answer this question you are going to understand me very easily. Almost all of us come from religions that threaten or suggest that things will go wrong if we act or think badly.
At some point in our lives, we have all been angry, we have all screamed or we have all said something in a moment of heat. This is part of human nature.
What difference is there with the cult of the Santisima Muerte (the Most Holy Death), La Nina Bonita (the Pretty Girl), La Flaca (the Skinny), La Flaquita (the Skinny Lady), La Santa Patrona (the Patron Saint), la Catrina…?
Well, you can ask for anything and we all, basically, deserve to have the same help without any difference, without judging our past, or what we have done; you must only look forward: it does not matter if you are a peasant or a king.
We all have a common moment in our lives in which we know we must cross the line without the certainty of knowing where we are going.
If all our material possessions were taken away and we were told that we had to go, that the hour of our death had arrived… the first thing we would do would be to take care of our loved ones, and we would put everything in order in one way or another. But, what none of us would forget then, is that the most important thing is to have a good death, a peaceful death and with no pain.
Since the Most Holy Death helps and protects everyone she has been wrongly labelled, for a short time, as something negative.
The people who ask and pray to her have found great relief and consolation and that is why her worship and spreading is done through her own devotees, transmitting the cult orally from parents to children.
Chapter 3 – The representation of the Holy Death and its forms
The Holy Death may be represented in different ways, as a male or a female figure; as a masculine figure, it is gloomily dressed and has a scythe and a rosary; as a feminine figure, it is dressed in a long white satin robe and has a golden crown.
The Holy Death may also be represented as a skull, a skeleton covered with a robe, sometimes holding a scale -which means equality for all- or with a scythe, as an elderly woman or as a pretty young woman, dressed in white, in black, in red, in yellow, or in other colours, or also as a man in humble clothes.
The most frequent representations are in prints, either in black and white or in colours. They are made of resin, glass, metal, papier-mâché, wood, bone, etc., and consecrated according to the person who makes them.
The Holy Death sitting
The Holy Death is sitting on a kind of throne watching the world, and is a faithful servant of the Universal Creator. The figure is holding a scythe or a balance (with which the world is balanced between the spiritual and economic side), and is accompanied by an animal that represents the underworld, such as the owl. In the other hand, there is a scythe which represents the mutilation of all negative energy, wherever this figure is placed. For Law Offices, the ideal colour is green.
Sitting on the world
The strength of this figure is in the orb, it is used more as a reference to its strength than as a special form for making requests. It is used with other images. The head tilts upwards indicating that the Holy Death always looks like this at the Creator of all visible and invisible things. This position suggests that the
