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Select a Category Amazon Synod andrew chesnut Brazil Catholicism Christianity death Evangelical Exorcism kate kingsbury Mexico narcocult Orixas Our Lady of Aparecida Our lady of the Bullet Pentecostal Religion Rey Pascual Santa Muerte Uncategorized vodou

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August 2025

August 29, 2025

Maria La Sposa: The Italian Skeleton Bride As Folk Saint

In the heart of Torre Annunziata (Naples), amidst the shadows of the Vesuvian cemeteries, endures...

June 2025

June 02, 2025

Lost Souls and Adopted Skulls at Naples’ Fontanelle Cemetery

Deep in the heart of Naples, where the tuff stone (a type of limestone typical...

December 2023

December 08, 2023

The Two Skeleton Saints – A Journey Into the Fascinating World of Santa Muerte and San La Muerte

By guest contributor, anthropologist Luciano Martucci The unprecedented ethnographic exposition in Bologna, which revealed the...

April 2023

April 25, 2023

Saint of Death Santa Muerte Gave Me a New Lease on Life

By guest contributor Seamus Bellamy* I found Santa Muerte before I came to Mexico....

March 2023

March 29, 2023

Santa Muerte Guides Me as a Death Doula

My name is Carl Orosco* and I'm a Death Doula. A Death Doula is a...

October 2022

October 20, 2022

The Holy Trinity of Justice – Saint Justus, Christ the Just Judge and San la Muerte

Dr. Andrew Chesnut writes in his book Devoted to Death: "If the association between Santa...

October 14, 2022

Mexico’s Death Trio: La Catrina, Day of Dead, Santa Muerte

Co-authored by Professor Andrew Chesnut, Dr. Kate Kingsbury*, and Mr. David B. Metcalfe** The season...

January 2022

January 03, 2022

Foreword to the French Edition of “Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint”

By Dr. Kate Kingsbury* We are living in a time of much death, or what...

October 2021

October 15, 2021

Meet the Mexican Death Trinity – Day of the Dead, Catrina Calavera and Santa Muerte

The season of death is upon us. October is here impending Halloween with its cavalcade...

September 2021

September 03, 2021

The Good Death Resurrected – Memento Mori and Santa Muerte as Spirit of the Times

Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Professor R. Andrew Chesnut Having spent the past decade...

August 2021

August 11, 2021

Sebastian and Santa Muerte – Simpatico Saints of Holy Death and LGBTQ

Having contemplated hundreds of Catholic saints over the past decade for my research both on...

October 2020

October 21, 2020

Mexico’s Dames and Days of Death – Santa Muerte, Catrina Calavera and Dia de los Muertos

Jointly authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury*, David B. Metcalfe**, and Dr. Andrew Chesnut The season...

August 2020

August 28, 2020

Colonizing Death -American Evangelist Crusades Against Santa Muerte at Landmark Shrine in Tepito

By Dr. Kate Kingsbury and Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut Since what is now the...

July 2020

July 25, 2020

Praying to Godmother Death – New Evidence of Santa Muerte Venerated as ‘Comadre Sebastiana’ in 19th-Century New Mexico

During the second half of the 19th century in the mountain towns of New Mexico...

June 2020

June 28, 2020

Dr. Kate Kingsbury Pens Foreword to Turkish Edition of “Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint”

First published by Oxford University Press in 2012 with the second edition in 2017, my...

May 2020

May 04, 2020

Supernatural Sorority – The Religious Feminism of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

What really struck me in the second episode of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is...

March 2020

March 24, 2020

Life and Death in the Time of Coronavirus: Santa Muerte, the ‘Holy Healer’

‘My name is Death: the last best friend am I’. Robert Southey, 1816 Co-authored by...

February 2020

February 06, 2020

Leading Santa Muerte Expert Interviewed on the Fastest Growing New Religious Movement in the West

What prompted your interest in the Santa Muerte phenomena?* I am a specialist in the...

August 2019

August 16, 2019

Holy Child of Raffles – The Mexican Christ Child Asleep on a Skull

Having researched the Mexican skeleton saint Santa Muerte for the past decade I am quite...

March 2019

March 18, 2019

Supplicating Santa Muerte: Fierce Female Folk Saint as Source of Empowerment for Mexican Indigenous Women

By Kate Kingsbury The Mexican State’s relationship with the region of Oaxaca, is tenuous, unlike...

November 2018

November 01, 2018

Exorcising Mictecacihuatl – The Origins of Day of the Dead in Mexico

Co-authored by Dr. Andrew Chesnut and David Metcalfe* In the U.S., the Catholic festival of...

September 2018

September 23, 2018

Catholic Church Picks a Bone with Cameroon Skull Cult

Authored by guest contributor Dr. Kate Kingsbury* The Bamiléké of Cameroon have long believed that...

August 2018

August 15, 2018

Feasting with the Skeleton Saints of Roggenburg

As a specialist in lived religion much of my memento mori research in Europe this...

August 06, 2018

Pope Francis’ Absolute Ban on the Death Penalty Aimed at U.S.

In a major shift on Church teaching, Pope Francis has declared capital punishment unacceptable in...

July 2018

July 30, 2018

Dancing with Death – The Last Danse Macabre in a French Church

Macabre isn’t usually one of the adjectives used to describe contemporary dance in its myriad...

July 14, 2018

From Anonymous Bones to Memorial Skulls at an Austrian Ossuary – A Photo-Essay from Hallstatt

Death as the ultimate equalizer is one of the compelling themes at the ossuaries of...

July 08, 2018

St. Notburga – The Skeleton Saint of Social Justice

I did a double-take upon spying a sharply dressed female skeleton raising a shiny sickle...

May 2018

May 29, 2018

The Kiss of Death – Eros and Thanatos in a Barcelona Cemetery

This piece was supposed to be about the Virgin of Montserrat, the Black Matroness of...

May 17, 2018

From Kitchen Saint to Skeleton Saint Rey Pascual – The Bizarre Case of Pascual Bailon

Co-authored by Dr. Andrew Chesnut and Dr. Kate Kingsbury* Guatemalan folk saint Rey Pascual’s foundation...

May 09, 2018

Our Lady of the Bullet as Flak Jacket for Femicide

Surpassed only by Syria in the number of violent deaths in the past decade, Mexico...

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