San La Muerte is the masculine equivalent of Santa Muerte in Mexico, this time having his origins in the northeast of Argentina. He probably has much more to do with indigenous belief than the cult of Santa Muerte. Speculations as to his origins range from his being the spirit of a Guaraní king who was given the task of being the Grim Reaper to a renegade Spanish friar who went native and was found dead in his cell after being imprisoned by ecclesiastical authorities. In any case, the cult to him is quite old and in places enjoyed unofficial sanction from some church officials. One man speaks of his grandfather’s devotion to the saint on this website (my translation):
There was a time, not more than thirty years ago now, when my grandfather would bring the little saint to church to have a Mass for him every 20th of the month. That would happen every month until one day they stopped it. I believe in all humility that it was a mistake for the Church to discriminate against us. We really don’t see the harm in believing in a saint who defends the poor… He would have to be accepted since he doesn’t do evil, on the contrary. And I’ll tell you more, before my grandfather found the saint, he didn’t even know how to make the Sign of the Cross, and towards the end of his life he prayed two hours when he got up and two hours before he went to bed for those who were praying for the intercession of San La Muerte.
There is a song that was recorded about him in the 1930’s that can be found online at this link. It is also said that he was the protector of the famous gaucho-bandit, Gauchito Gil, himself a folk saint who died in the 19th century. He has the distinction of being a popular folk saint in one of the most secluded areas of Latin America.
Originally, he was one of the many santos de palo or stick saints that were made by people as talismans for various occasions and necessities. The details of his cult, though fairly unorganized, have a very unsavory character for the modern Western person. Generally, the saint can be made out of wood, but it can also be made out of human bone, preferably that of a devout Christian. The image is blessed by being taken to seven different churches to have the image blessed at Mass (not openly, of course). If you can get a priest to bless it unknowingly (say, by placing a holy card over it or placing it in another statue), that is considered even better. Or if all else fails, two devout Catholic laymen can bless it, but it varies with the region.
While it has been historically a marginal devotion of the very poor, like the cult to Santa Muerte in Mexico, it is starting to spread to other parts of Argentina and is taking a decidedly New Age turn. The following film, made in the 1960’s, will give you a feel for what the San La Muerte cult meant in the past in the most secluded parts of Argentina.
Arturo, gracias por el enlace. Muy completa la nota de San La Muerte, que como decís, no es lo mismo que la Santa Muerte, ni en su origen ni en su representación, aunque si tienen muchas similitudes.
[...] unos días, en su blog, Arturo Vázquez escribió una nota muy interesante (en inglés) sobre San La Muerte. Aparte de contar la historia de San La Muerte, su origen y la [...]
Reminds me a bit of Rey San Pascual, the Guatemalan Folk Saint. Many believe he is a syncretic rendition of the Ancient Maya Death God, Ah Puch. But legend has it that he was a Catholic priest who was buried alive.
Well, since you brought it up….
El Rey Pascual is actually suppose to represent a real Catholic saint. During a plague in colonial times somewhere in what is now Central America, the friars exhorted the people to pray for the intercession of St. Paschal Baylon, who was a sixteenth century Spanish lay brother. They did, and the plague went away, but the friars found to their great dismay that the people of the village had crafted an image of St. Paschal in the form of a hooded skeleton. They quickly sought to destroy all images of it, though some of the originals survive. There is one venerated in Chiapas in a chapel run by the Orthodox Church of Mexico (not affiliated with any branch of Eastern Orthodoxy). There is also a similar figure that is supposed to represent St. Bernard in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, as well as a small chapel to death in the state of Oaxaca, both dating to late colonial times.