Santa Muerte

Our Lady of the Holy Death Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte
Close-up of a Santa Muerte south of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Other names	Lady of the Shadows, Lady of the Night, Lady of the Seven Powers, White Lady, Black Lady, Skinny Lady, Bony Lady, Mictecacihuatl (Lady of the Dead)
Affiliation	A wide variety of powers, including love, prosperity, good health, fortune, healing, safe passage, protection against witchcraft, against assaults, against gun violence, against violent death. Protection of jobs such as police officers, taxi drivers, bar owners, bicycle messengers; criminal professions including smugglers and drug dealers; LGBT people, prostitutes, people in poverty, and other categories of outcasts.
Major cult centre	Earliest temple is the Shrine of the Most Holy Death founded by Enriqueta Romero in Mexico City
Weapon	Scythe
Artifacts	Globe, scale of justice, hourglass, oil lamp
Animals	Owl
Symbol	Human female skeleton clad in a robe
Region	Mexico and the United States
Festivals	Day of the Dead, November 1, August 15

Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte (Spanish for Our Lady of the Holy Death) or, colloquially, Santa Muerte (Holy Death), is a female deity (or folk saint depending on school of thought) Mexican folk religion, venerated primarily in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees. Despite condemnation by the Catholic Church, her cult has risen to an unprecedented prominence in the 2000s and 2010s, as a continuation of the Aztec goddess of death Mictecacihuatl (Nahuatl for "Lady of the Dead") clad in Spanish iconography.

Since the pre-Columbian era Mexican culture has maintained a certain reverence towards death, which can be seen in the widespread commemoration of the Day of the Dead. Elements of that celebration include the use of skeletons to remind people of their mortality. The worship of Santa Muerte is condemned by the Catholic Church in Mexico as invalid, but it is firmly entrenched among an increasing percentage of Mexican culture.

Santa Muerte generally appears as a skeletal female figure, clad in a long robe and holding one or more objects, usually a scythe and a globe. Her robe can be of any color, as more specific images of the figure vary widely from devotee to devotee and according to the rite being performed or the petition being made.

As the worship of Santa Muerte was clandestine until the 20th century, most prayers and other rites have been traditionally performed privately in the home. Since the beginning of the 21st century, worship has become more public, especially in Mexico City after Enriqueta Romero initiated her famous Mexico City shrine in 2001. The number of believers in Santa Muerte has grown over the past ten to twenty years, to an estimated 10-20 million followers in Mexico, the United States, and parts of Central America. Santa Muerte has similar male counterparts in the Americas, such as the skeletal folk saints San La Muerte of Paraguay and Rey Pascual of Guatemala.