La Santa Muerte and the Characteristic Damage of Canonization

Devotion to La Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint who personifies Death, has been condemned by the Catholic Church for its affiliation with Mexican drug cartels. This article challenges mainstream interpretations of La Santa Muerte devotion using the theological framework of characteristic damage, as defined by Lauren Winner and Paul J. Griffiths. This framework understands liturgy as celebrated by sinners in a damaged world, and therefore necessarily damaged itself. As much as liturgy and Christian practice form us for good, they also per- petuate damage. I argue that the sins present in La Santa Muerte veneration are an expression of characteristic damage in folk saint practices and, therefore, in canonization itself. For those at the margins of institutions of power, canonized saints and the very idea of holiness feel inaccessible because the canonization process reiterates worldly dynamics of class, race, and gender. Individuals in- stead seek out folk saints who fit with the marginalization and moral realities of their own lives.