​October 31 is Santa Muerte's birthday, when millions of followers gather at her altars to pay tribute to the saint and pray for much needed miracles.

She is the embodiment of death – a skeletal figure of a woman often dressed in a wedding dress or other flamboyant gown. Much like the Grim Reaper, she holds a scythe in one hand and has the power to decide on your ultimate fate.

Followers have a reputation of being part of a satanic cult who call on the skeletal saint to carry out unethical operations, usually in the name of vengeance.

Devotees set up shrines to her in their homes and dashboards of their cars, but until relatively recently she had mainly been worshiped in private.

Her first public altar appeared in Mexico City 13 years ago in the streets of Tepito – one of the more marginalized neighborhoods of the city, renowned for its high crime rate and illicit underground activity.

Some of her followers gather here for monthly services. But every year on her birthday, hundreds of people pay tribute by building their own personal shrines of Santa Muerte on the street outside of the main altar, bringing relics that they have collected over the years.

“This picture, which is the principal piece in the altar in my house, was a present from my grandma. It's about 30-35 years old,” Martin Garcia told teleSUR at the birthday celebration in 2013. “It's special because she got it as a present from a neighbor who was in jail. That's why I brought it here to Santa Muerte's birthday. In my house I have others that are bigger, and others that are smaller but this is my main one.”    

People stand with Santa Muerte and their altars all day, while others give offerings of fruit, candies and prayer cards, but also beer and cigarettes. Many people also approach the main altar on their knees, a symbol of their devotion and gratefulness.

Santa Muerte has typically been worshiped in prisons and among the drug cartels, making her one of the country's two ‘narco-saints’ (along with Malverde, said to be a bandit from the state of Sinaloa).     

However, as violence and the feeling of insecurity in Mexico continues to grow, so do the number of people who turn to Santa Muerte for help and guidance. Her followers now include many on the margins of society who have been threatened by violence, forgotten by the state and have lost all faith in the justice system. She has come to be associated with protection, healing and safe delivery to the afterlife, rather than retribution.   

“Death is the only thing that's certain in life,” one devotee told teleSUR in Tepito – a common response when people are asked why they worship the saint of death.   

Since Mexico declared a war on drugs in 2006, violence in the country has increased dramatically, putting civilians in the middle of an all out war between drug cartels and police officials.

According to official figures, since December 2012, at least 1,000 people die in Mexico every month due to violence linked to drug cartels. While, in the last eight years, 26,000 people have gone missing.

Mexico's justice system also has a reputation of being rife with corruption. According to a study released in September 2014 by INEGI, the country's national statistics institute, 73.3 percent of Mexican citizens feel insecure in the country due to its high rate of crime and violence, and a failed justice system. Another 65.6 percent of Mexicans said they do not report crimes committed against them because they have no trust in the authorities.  

Apart from violence and corruption, insecurity is also bred from the lack of opportunity in the country. Some 60 percent of the country's labour force work in the informal economy, either because of lack of job opportunities or because of bad working conditions in the formal sector, according to INEGI.

This means that over half the working population have no workers rights, access to social security, or secure income to properly care for their families.    

“Santa Muerte doesn't discriminate,” another follower told teleSUR. “She helps everyone.”  

It is believed that the skeletal saint now has anywhere from seven to 12 million followers, mainly in Mexico and the United States but also across the Americas, says Andrew Chesnut in his book Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte the Skeleton Saint. In Mexico, she now rivals the Virgin of Guadalupe as being one of the most important icons in the country.    

The precise origins of Santa Muerte are unknown, but she is believed to be a fusion of Mesoamerican and Catholic beliefs. Followers tend to be amongst the religious, worshiping both Jesus and Santa Muerte side by side – even though she has been condemned by the Catholic Church and is seen as a threat to the religion.

Despite the Church's denunciation, the cult of death exists across Latin America in many different forms, says Chesnut. In Guatemala and Mexico´s southern state of Chiapas, people also worship Rey Pascual, while in Argentina and Paraguay, people turn to San La Muerte. Both can be considered Santa Muerte's male skeletal counterparts. That makes a large number of people who place their trust in death, rather than just fearing it.

See Also: Santa Muerte Photo Gallery