Devotion to Saint Death in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - MAY 01: A Mexican follower of Santa Muerte (Saint Death) sits on the street during the pilgrimage in Tepito, a rough district of Mexico City, Mexico, on May 01, 2011. The religious cult of Santa Muerte, a syncretic fusion of Aztec death worship rituals and Catholic beliefs, has rapidly expanded. In the past decades, original Santa Muerte's followers (such as prostitutes, pickpockets and drug traffickers) have merged with thousands of ordinary Mexican Catholics. Although the Catholic Church considers the cult as devil worshipping, on the first day of every month, crowds of Santa Muerte's devotees fill the streets of Tepito. Holding skeletal figurines, they pray for power healing, protection and make petitions to ‘La Santísima Muerte’. (Photo by Jan Sochor/Latincontent/Getty Images)