Mexicans pray to 'saint' of death for protection from virus

The Grim Reaper-like figure has been rejected by the Roman Catholic Church as blasphemous. FMTNews Virus

MEXICO CITY: Their arms raised towards the sky, worshippers of Mexico’s “saint” of death pray before a giant cloaked skeleton asking for protection from the coronavirus and its devastating economic fallout.

“With the pandemic, more devotees want to come to ask for health and protection,” said 30-year-old Cristel Legaria, whose late mother erected the 22m fiberglass statue in Tultitlan near the capital. After many decades underground, the practise emerged from the shadows in the mid-20th century, particularly in the capital, as Mexicans arrived from the impoverished countryside.The number of followers grew in 2001, when a woman named Enriqueta “Dona Queta” Romero displayed her Santa Muerte figure in Mexico City’s rough neighbourhood of Tepito.

But that does not seem to bother Rodrigo Oliva, who travels 70km from the capital to Tultitlan, where face masks, temperature checks and social distancing are compulsory.

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