Folk saint
Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities (such as indigenous spirits) venerated as saints, but not officially canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the populus, they are also called popular saints. Like officially recognized saints, folk saints are considered intercessors with God, but many are also understood to act directly in the lives of their devotees.

Frequently, their actions in life as well as in death distinguish folk saints from their canonized counterparts: official doctrine would consider many of them sinners and false idols. Their ranks are filled by folk healers, indigenous spirits, and folk heroes. Folk saints occur throughout the Catholic world, and they are especially popular in Latin America, where most have small followings; a few are celebrated at the national or even international level.
Origins
In the pre-Christian Abrahamic tradition, the prophets and holy people who were honored with shrines were identified by popular acclaim rather than official designation. In fact, the Islamic counterparts of the Christian saints, associated most closely with Sufism, are still identified this way.[1] Early Christians followed in the same tradition when they visited the shrines of martyrs to ask for intercession with God.
Thus, there is a long tradition for the veneration of unofficial saints, and modern folk saints continue to reach popularity in much the same way as ever. Tales of miracles or good works performed during the person's life are spread by word of mouth, and, according to anthropologist Octavio Ignacio Romano, "if exceptional fame is achieved, it may happen that after his [or her] death the same cycle of stories told during life will continue to be repeated."[2] Popularity is likely to increase if new miracles continue to be reported after death. Hispanic studies professor Frank Graziano explains:
[M]any folk devotions begin through the clouding of the distinction between praying for and praying to a recently deceased person. If several family members and friends pray at someone's tomb, perhaps lighting candles and leaving offerings, their actions arouse the curiosity of others. Some give it a try—the for and the to begin intermingling—because the frequent visits to the tomb suggest that the soul of its occupant may be miraculous. As soon as miracles are announced, often by family members and friends, newcomers arrive to send up prayers, now to the miraculous soul, with the hope of having their requests granted.[3]
This initial rise to fame follows much the same trajectory as that of the official saints. Professor of Spanish Kathleen Ann Myers writes that Rose of Lima, the first canonized American saint, attracted "mass veneration beginning almost at the moment of the mystic's death." Crowds of people appeared at her funeral, where some even cut off pieces of her clothing to keep as relics. A lay religious movement quickly developed with Rosa de Lima at the center but she was not officially canonized until half of a century later.[4] In the meantime, she was essentially a folk saint.
As the Church spread, it became more influential in regions that celebrated deities and heroes that were not part of Catholic tradition. Many of those figures were incorporated into a local variety of Catholicism: the ranks of official saints then came to include a number of non-Catholics or even fictional persons. Church leaders made an effort in 1969 to purge such figures from the official list of saints, though at least some probably remain. Many folk saints have their origins in this same mixing of Catholic traditions and local cultural and religious traditions. To distinguish canonized saints from folk saints, the latter are sometimes called animas or "spirits" instead of saints.
Local character
Folk saints tend to come from the same communities as their followers. In death, they are said to continue as active members of their communities, remaining embedded within a system of reciprocity that reaches beyond the grave. Devotees offer prayers to the folk saints and present them with offerings, and folk saints repay the favors by dispensing small miracles. Many folk saints inhabit marginalized communities, the needs of which are more worldly than others; they therefore frequently act in a more worldly, more pragmatic, less dogmatic fashion than their official counterparts.[5] Devotion to folk saints, then, frequently takes on a distinctly local character, a result of the syncretic mixing of traditions and the particular needs of the community.
The contrast between the manner in which Latin American and European folk saints are said to intercede in the lives of their followers provides a good illustration. In Western Europe, writes anthropologist and religious historian William A. Christian, "the more pervasive influence of scientific medicine, the comparative stability of Western European governments and above all, the more effective presence of the institutional Church" have meant that unofficial holy people generally work within established doctrine. Latin American holy persons, on the other hand, often stray much further from official canon. Whereas European folk saints serve merely as messengers of the divine, their Latin American counterparts frequently act directly in the lives of their devotees.[6]
During the Counter-Reformation in Europe, the Council of Trent released a decree "On the Invocation, Veneration, and Relics, of Saints, and on Sacred Images," which explained that in Roman Catholic doctrine images and relics of the saints are to be used by worshipers to help them contemplate the saints and the virtues that they represent but that those images and relics do not actually embody the saints. In the same way, folk saints in Europe are seen as intermediaries between penitents and the divine but are not considered powerful in and of themselves. A shrine may be built "that becomes the location for the fulfillment of the village's calendrical obligations and critical supplications to the shrine image—the village's divine protector," Christian writes, but "in this context the shrine image and the site of its location are of prime importance; the seer merely introduces it, and is not himself or herself the focal point of the worship."[7]
In pre-Columbian Mesoamerican tradition, on the other hand, representation meant embodiment of these holy figures rather than mere resemblance, as it did in Europe.[8] Thus, pre-Hispanic Mexican and Central American images were understood to actually take on the character and spirit of the deities they represented, a perspective that was considered idolatry by European Catholics. As the inheritors of this tradition, folk saints of the region often are seen to act directly in the lives of their devotees rather than serving as mere intermediaries, and they are themselves venerated. Visitors frequently treat the representations of folk saints as real people, observing proper etiquette for speaking to a socially superior person or to a friend depending on the spirit's disposition—shaking hands, or offering it a cigarette or a drink.
The popularity of a particular folk saint also depends on the changing dynamics and needs of the community over time. The popular devotion to Yevgeny Rodionov provides an example. Rodionov was a Russian soldier who was killed by rebels in Chechnya after he reportedly refused to renounce his religion or remove a cross he wore around his neck. He is not recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church as an official saint, yet within a few years of his death he had gained a popular following: his image appeared in homes and churches around Russia, his hometown started drawing pilgrims, and he began to receive prayers and requests for intercession. Rodionov became a favorite folk saint for soldiers and came to represent Russian nationalism at a time of conflict when the country was still reeling from the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As one journalist observed in 2003, his death and transition into the role of a folk saint served "to fill a nationalist hunger for popular heroes" when heroes were sorely needed.[9]
Devotions
A devotee might visit the shrine of a folk saint for any number of reasons, including general requests for good health and good luck, the lifting of a curse, or protection on the road, but most folk saints have specialties for which their help is sought. Difunta Correa, for example, specializes in helping her followers acquire new homes and businesses. Juan Bautista Morillo helps gamblers in Venezuela, and Juan Soldado watches over border crossings between Mexico and the United States.[10] This practice is not so different from that of canonized saints—St. Benedict, for example, is the patron saint of agricultural workers—but it would be hard to find a canonized saint to look after narcotics traffickers, as does Jesús Malverde. In fact, a number of folk saints attract devotees precisely because they respond to requests that the official saints are unlikely to answer. As Griffith writes, "One needs ask for help where the help is likely to be effective."[11] So long as followers come before them with faith and perform the proper devotions, some folk saints are as willing to place a curse on a person as to lift one.
An offering to a folk saint might include the same votive candles and ex-votos (tributes of thanks) left at the shrines to canonized saints, but they also frequently include other items that reflect something of the spirit's former life or personality. Thus, Difunta Correa, who died of thirst, is given bottles of water; Maximón and the spirit of Pancho Villa are both offered cigarettes and alcohol; teddy bears and toys are left at the tomb of a little boy called Carlitos in a cemetery in Hermosillo, Mexico. Likewise, prayers to folk saints are often paired with or incorporate aspects of the Rosary but (as with many canonized saints) special petitions have been composed for many of them, each prayer evoking the particular characteristics of the saint being addressed. Other local or regional idiosyncrasies also creep in. In parts of Mexico and Central America, for example, the aromatic resin copal is burned for the more syncretic spirits like Maximón, a practice that has its roots in the offerings made to indigenous deities.
As long as the spirits come through for their followers, devotees will return. Word of mouth spreads news of cures and good fortune, and particularly responsive spirits are likely to gain a large following. Not all remain popular, however. While official saints remain canonized regardless of their popularity, folk saints that lose their devotees through their failure to respond to petitions might fade from memory entirely.
Relationship with the Catholic Church
In areas where the Catholic Church has greater power, it maintains more control over the devotional lives of its members. Thus, in Europe, folk devotions that are encouraged by the Church are quickly institutionalized, while those that are discouraged usually die out or continue only at reduced levels.[12] For similar reasons, folk saints are more often venerated in poor and marginalized communities than in affluent ones. Nor are folk saints found in shrines to the canonical saints, though the reverse is often true: it is not uncommon for a folk saint's shrine to be decorated with images of other folk saints as well as members of the official Catholic communion. Shrines in the home, too, frequently include official and unofficial saints together. Graziano explains:
Catholicism is not so much abandoned as expanded [by folk practitioners]; it is stretched to encompass exceptional resources. Whereas Catholicism ... defends a distinction between canonical and non-canonical or orthodox and heterodox, folk devotion intermingles these quite naturally and without reserve.[13]
List of folk saints by country
Picture | Name | Died | Countries of Devotion | Shrine | Patronage | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Taira no Masakado | 940 | ![]() |
Masakado-zuka, Otemachi, Tokyo, Japan | Japanese provincial magnate and samurai | |
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John Schorne | 1313 | ![]() |
St George's Chapel, Windsor, United Kingdom | Gout and toothache | [14] |
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Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros | 1517 | ![]() |
Toledo Cathedral, Toledo | Dakhla, Western Sahara, students, scholors, educators. | Spanish Cardinal, theologian, Archbishop of Toledo, and Primate of Spain |
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Catherine of Aragon | 1536 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Peterborough Cathedral, Peterborough, England | First wife of King Henry VIII; mother of Queen Mary I of England | |
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Guaicaipuro | 1568 | ![]() |
Venezuelan chief of both the Teques and Caracas tribes | ||
Miguel de Ayatumo | 1609 | ![]() |
San Pedro Apostol Church, Loboc, Bohol, Philippines | Filipino Jesuit seminarian | ||
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Amakusa Shirō | 1638 | ![]() |
Japanese Catholic samurai and revolutionary | ||
Francisco José das Chagas (known as Chaguinhas) | 1821 | ![]() |
Chapel of Our Lady of the Afflicted, São Paulo, Brazil | Unemployed, workers, people who have suffered any kind of injustice | Brazilian soldier sentenced to hang for asking for better wages | |
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Difunta Correa | 1840s | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Vallecito, Argentina | cattle herders, ranches, truck driver, gauchos | Argentine mother found dead with a baby |
Apolinario de la Cruz (known as Hermano Pule) | 1841 | ![]() |
Tayabas, Quezon, Philippines | Cofradía de San José, religious freedom, peace, native Filipinos | Filipino religious leader and revolutionary | |
Jean Marie Villars | 1868 | ![]() |
financial problems, good health, fortune, finding lost things, murder victims | French-American priest in Indiana | ||
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Gauchito Gil | 1878 | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Sanctuary of Gauchito Gil, Pay Ubre, Mercedes, Corrientes | gauchos, protection from harm, luck, fortune, good health, love, healing, outlaws, bravery, deserters, folk heroes, cowboys, safe passage | Robin Hood figure of Argentina |
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Marie Catherine Laveau | 1881 | ![]() |
International Shrine of Marie Laveau, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States | mothers, children, fevers, love, volunteerism, Louisiana voodoo | American practitioner of Voodoo, herbalist and midwife who was renowned in Louisiana |
Héléna Soutadé | 1885 | ![]() |
Terre-Cabade Cemetery, Toulouse, France | children | French teacher and mystic | |
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María Adelaide de Sam José e Sousa | 1885 | ![]() |
Capela de Santa Maria Adelaide, Arcozelo, Portugal | Portuguese woman with incorruptible body | |
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Pancho Sierra | 1891 | ![]() |
Salto Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina | Argentine faith healer | |
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José Rizal | 1896 | ![]() |
Iglesia Sagrada ni Lahi, Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines | Rizalista religious movements | Filipino nationalist and polymath during the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. |
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Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel (known as Antônio "Conselheiro") | 1897 | ![]() |
Church of Santo Antonio, Canudos, Brazil | Brazilian religious leader, preacher, and founder of the village of Canudos | |
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José Tomás de Sousa Martins | 1897 | ![]() |
Campo dos Mártires da Pátria, Lisbon, Portugal | Portuguese physician and philanthropist | |
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Francesc Canals i Ambrós (known as El Santet) | 1899 | ![]() |
Poblenou Cemetery, Barcelona | Marriage, fertility, non-monetary favors. | Catalan youth and miracle worker |
Teresa Urrea (known as Santa Teresa de Cabora) | 1906 | ![]() ![]() |
Chapel of Saint Teresa, San Pedro, Arizona, United States | soldiers, government, healing, Yaqui people, Mayo people, uprising, homeless, sick, revolution | Mexican mystic, folk healer, and revolutionary insurgent | |
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Don Pedro Jaramillo | 1907 | ![]() |
Don Pedro Jaramillo Shrine, Falfurrias, Texas, United States | cures, good health, fortune, healing, protection from diseases | Mexican-American curandero, faith healer, and clairvoyant |
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Jesús Juarez Mazo (known as Jesús Malverde) | 1909 | ![]() ![]() |
Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico | drug cartels, drug trafficking, outlaws, bandits, robbers, thieves, smugglers, people in poverty | Robin Hood figure of Mexico |
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Maria Izilda de Castro Ribeiro (known as Menina Izildinha) |
1911 | ![]() ![]() |
Mausoleum of Menina Izildinha, Monte Alto, São Paulo, Brazil | Children, adolescents, orphans, good health, social welfare, protection from harm, protection from diseases, people in poverty | Portuguese girl who died of leukemia |
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Grigori Rasputin | 1916 | ![]() |
Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man | ||
Antônio Bento (known as Antônio Bento "do Portão") | 1917 | ![]() |
Santo Amaro Cemetery, São Paulo, Brazil | Poor, sick, people with any kind of problem or worry | Beggar who stayed near the doors of houses offering prayers in exchange for a meal | |
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José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (known as Francisco "Pancho" Villa) | 1923 | ![]() |
Mexican revolutionary general and politician | ||
Maria Basañes | 1929 | ![]() |
Casanayan, Pilar, Capiz, Philippines | Filipino woman with an incorruptible body | ||
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José Antonio Primo de Rivera | 1936 | ![]() |
Valley of the Fallen, Sierra de Guadarrama | Spainards, falangists, workers. | Spanish politician, founder of Falange Española, and nationalist martyr. |
Filomena Almarinez | 1938 | ![]() |
Biñan, Laguna, Philippines | Filipino Catholic laywoman | ||
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Juan Castillo Morales (known as Juan Soldado) | 1938 | ![]() ![]() |
Shrine of San Juan Soldado, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico | good health, criminals, family problems, crossing the U.S.–Mexico border | Mexican convicted rapist and murderer turned folk saint |
José de Jesús Fidencio Síntora (known as Niño Fidencio) | 1938 | ![]() ![]() |
Fidencista Christian Church, Espinazo, Nuevo León, Mexico | healings, cures, protection from diseases | Mexican curandero | |
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Sara Colonia Zambrano (known as Sarita Colonia) | 1940 | ![]() |
Capilla de Santa Sarita, Callao, Peru | bus and taxi drivers, prostitutes, homosexuals, job seekers, poor, migrants | Peruvian girl credited with the ability to make miracles |
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Juan Bautista Bairoletto | 1941 | ![]() |
love matters, immigrants, prostitute, bandits, financial problems, justice | Argentine outlaw dubbed as El Robin Hood criollo | |
Watt Henry | 1941 | Ireland | St. Coman's Cemetery, Roscommon, Ireland | People who suffer chronic pain, sick people in general | Irish lay man who spent all day praying in Church and died smelling of roses. | |
Antônio Marcelino (known as Menino da Tábua) | 1945 | ![]() |
Chapel of Menino da Tábua, Maracaí, Brazil | Children, the poor, people with disabilities, people with low income, people with any kind of problem or worry | Disabled man who lived all his life immobile on a washboard | |
Julian Oviedo | 1950 | Paraguay | Cancer patients, chronic pain, those in financial distress. | A husband and father who was killed tragically in a road accident. His cult is strong among the poor. | ||
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Eva Perón | 1952 | ![]() |
Casa Museo Eva Perón, Los Toldos, Argentina | First Lady of Argentina (1946–1952) | |
Valeriu Gafencu | 1952 | ![]() |
Târgu Ocna, Bacău, Romania | Romanian Orthodox theologian and martyr; venerated in the Romanian Orthodox Church | ||
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Joseph Stalin[15] | 1953 | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Joseph Stalin Museam, GoriJoseph Stalin's Grave, Kremlin Wall Necropolis | Victory, Patriotism, communism | Leader of the USSR from 1922 to 1953. Unofficially venetrated by some priests of the Russian Orthodox Church |
Felix Manalo | 1963 | ![]() |
Iglesia ni Cristo, Quezon City, Philippines | Filipino pastor and religious movement founder | ||
Miguel Ángel Gaitán (known as El Angelito Milagroso) |
1967 | ![]() |
Banda Florida, San Juan, Argentina | Argentine baby who died in meningitis | ||
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Che Guevara | 1967 | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Che Guevara Mausoleum, Santa Clara, Cuba | warfare, government, revolution | Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla, leader, diplomat, and military theorist. |
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Hồ Chí Minh | 1969 | ![]() |
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Hanoi, Vietnam | 1st President of Democratic Vietnam (1945–1969) | |
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Roberto Clemente[16]
|
1972 | ![]() ![]() |
United States, Latin America | Athletes, Victims of racism, Victims of natural disasters, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, Latin Americans | Baseball player and humanitarian (1955–1972) |
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Josip Broz Tito | 1980 | ![]() |
Former President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1953–1980) | ||
Daughter of Ivana D. | 1864 | ![]() ![]() |
Wine, young women, menstrual pain | The girl credited with expanding the wine-drinking culture. | ||
Bruno Gumarao (known as Bruno Nazareno) | 1981 | ![]() |
Chapel of San Bruno Nazareno, Victoria, Northern Samar, Philippines | Filipino faith healer | ||
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Arsenie Boca | 1989 | ![]() |
Prislop Monastery, Hunedoara, Romania | Romanian theologian, mystic, and artist killed by the Romanian Communist Party | |
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Pablo Escobar Gaviria | 1993 | ![]() |
drug trade, Medellín Cartel, drug lords, protection from harm | Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel | |
Yevgeny Rodionov | 1996 | ![]() |
Kuznetsky District, Penza Oblast, Russia | Russian soldier killed in First Chechen War | ||
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Diana, Princess of Wales | 1997 | ![]() |
Althorp, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom | mental health, personal problems, protection from tabloid journalism, anti-monarchists | First wife of King Charles III |
Miriam Alejandra "Gilda" Bianchi | 1996 | ![]() |
Gilda Shrine, Entre Ríos, Argentina | healing, Gilda fanatics | Argentine cumbia singer and songwriter | |
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Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova (known as Baba Vanga) |
1996 | ![]() |
Church of St Petka of the Saddlers, Sofia, Bulgaria | physical healing, personal problems, prophecies of life | Bulgarian clairvoyant and mystic |
Jun Andres (known as Kristohan) | 2000 | ![]() |
Balay ni Kristohan, Maguindanao, Philippines | Teduray people | Filipino mystic and religious movement founder | |
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Rodrigo Bueno | 2000 | ![]() |
Argentine singer of cuarteto music | ||
Nikolay Guryanov | 2002 | ![]() |
Russian Orthodox priest and mystic | |||
Maria Virginia Leonzon | 2005 | ![]() |
Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Hermosa, Bataan, Philippines | Filipino laywoman canonized in 1995 by the Apostolic Catholic Church | ||
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Ferdinand Marcos | 1989 | ![]() |
Rizalian Brotherhood, San Quintin, Abra[17] | people of Ilocos Norte | 10th President of the Philippines (1965–1986) |
Nazario Moreno González | 2014 | ![]() ![]() |
Holanda and Apatzingán, Mexico | La Familia Michoacana, Knights Templar Cartel, people of Michoacán, protection from harm, protection from Los Zetas | Mexican drug lord | |
Marie-Paule Giguère | 2015 | ![]() ![]() |
Our Lady of All Nations Church, Quebec, Canada | Community of the Lady of All Nations | Canadian mystic and religious movement founder | |
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Bhumibol Adulyadej | 2016 | ![]() |
Wat Bowonniwet Vihara, Phra Nakhon district | Thai people | King of Thailand (1946–2016; venerated along with the rest of the living Thai royal family) |
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Dobri Dobrev | 2018 | ![]() |
Kremikovtsi Monastery, Sofia, Bulgaria | Bulgarian ascetic | |
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Diego Armando Maradona | 2020 | ![]() ![]() |
Maradona Shrine, Naples, Italy | Iglesia Maradoniana | Argentine professional football player and manager |
Legendary folk saints | ||||||
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Santa Muerte | ![]() ![]() ![]() most countries in Central America |
Shrine of Most Holy Death, Mexico City, Mexico | love, prosperity, good health, fortune, healing, safe passage, protection against witchcraft, protection against assaults, protection against gun violence, protection against violent death, safe delivery to the afterlife | Mexican female deity and personification of death | |
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Lin Moniang (Mazu) | ![]() ![]() ![]() most countries in Southeast Asia |
The ocean and patroness of seafarers, health, fertility, business | Chinese female deity and protector of Southeast Asians | ||
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San La Muerte | ![]() ![]() |
restore love, good fortune, gambling, protection against witchcraft, protection against imprisonment, inmates, prisoners, luck, good health, vengeance | Skeletal folk saint; male version of Santa Muerte | ||
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Saint Sarah | ![]() |
Church of the Saintes Maries de la Mer, Camargue, France | Romani people | ||
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Escrava Anastacia | ![]() |
Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | women, slaves, prisoners, abused victims | A slave woman of African descent wearing an oppressive facemask. | |
Niño Compadrito | ![]() |
Cuzco, Peru | Son of a Spanish viceroy and an Inca princess | |||
Master Rákóczi (known as Count Saint Germain) |
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French spiritual master on Theosophical and post-Theosophical teachings | ||||
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Maximón | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Santiago Atitlán, Guetamala | health, crops, marriage, business, revenge, death | Mayan deity | |
San Pascualito (known as San Pascualito Muerte) | ![]() ![]() |
Capilla de San Pascualito, Olintepeque, Guatemala | curing diseases, death, healings, cures, vengeance, love, graveyards | Folk saints associated with Saint Paschal Baylon | ||
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María Lionza | ![]() |
Cerro María Lionza Natural Monument, Yaracuy, Venezuela | nature, love, peace, harmony, indigenous religions in Venezuela | Venezuelan goddess | |
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Saint Wilgefortis | Western Europe and some parts in Latin America | relief from tribulations, in particular by women who wished to be liberated ("disencumbered") from abusive husbands, facial hair | Female saint who grew a beard | ||
Saint Raja | ![]() |
Rajinovac Monastery Spring | Begaljica, Hard workers | A servant who was killed by his master's sons[18][19][20][21][22] | ||
Aunt Bibija | Parts of the Balkans | Chapel of Aunt Bibija, Belgrade, Serbia | Good health, Children, Romani people | A healer who miraculously cured children | ||
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Santa Claus | Worldwide belief | Legendary character who is said to bring gifts on Christmas Eve | |||
Folk saints recognized by the Catholic Church | ||||||
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Sepé Tiaraju | 1756 | ![]() |
Diocese of Bagé, Pelotas, Brazil | Guarani leader; Cause for sainthood opened in April 2017 | |
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Cícero Romão Batista (known as Padre Cícero) |
1934 | ![]() |
Capela do Socorro, Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, Brazil | Juazeiro do Norte | Brazilian Roman Catholic priest and politician; Cause for sainthood opened in August 2022 |
Luisa de la Torre Rojas (known as Beatita de Humay) | 1869 | ![]() |
Arquidiócesis de Lima, Lima, Peru | Peruvian laywoman and mystic; Cause for sainthood opened in July 1946 | ||
José Gregorio Hernández | 1919 | ![]() |
La Candelaria Church, Mérida, Venezuela | medical students, diagnosticians, doctors, medical patients | Venezuelan physician; Beatified in 2021 | |
Phanxicô Xaviê Trương Bửu Diệp | 1946 | ![]() |
Nhà nguyện Trương Bửu Diệp, Giá Rai, Bạc Liêu, Vietnam | Vietnamese priest and martyr; Cause for sainthood opened in January 2012 | ||
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Melchora Saravia Tasayco (known as La Melchorita) | 1951 | ![]() |
Santuario de la Beata Melchorita, Chincha, Peru | Peruvian Franciscan tertiary and mystic; Cause for sainthood opened in April 1978 | |
Charlene Richard | 1959 | ![]() |
St. Edward Church, Richard, Louisiana, United States | Cajun people, good health, converts to Catholicism | American girl who died of leukemia; Cause for sainthood opened in January 2020 | |
Animals venerated as folk saints | ||||||
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Saint Guinefort | 13th century | ![]() |
dogs, dog owners, children, infants | 13th-century French dog; devotion suppressed by the Catholic Church in the 1930s but persisted | |
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Negro Matapacos | 21th century | ![]() |
dogs, protestors | 21 th century Chilean dog who participated in protests |
See also
References
- Michael Frishkopf. (2001). "Changing Modalities in the Globalization of Islamic Saint Veneration and Mysticism: Sidi Ibrahim al-Dasuqi, Shaykh Muhammad 'Uthman al-Burhani, and the Sufi Orders," Religious Studies and Theology 20(1):1
- Octavio Ignacio Romano V. (1965). "Charismatic Medicine, Folk-Healing, and Folk Sainthood," American Anthropologist 67(5):1151–1173. p. 1157.
- Graziano, Frank (2006). Cultures of Devotion: Folk Saints of Spanish America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 9–10.
- Kathleen Ann Myers. 2003. Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 23.
- Griffith, James S. (2003). Folk Saints of the Borderlands: Victims, Bandits & Healers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers. p. 152.
- William A Christian Jr. (1973) "Holy People in Peasant Europe," Comparative Studies in Society and History 15(1):106-114. p. 106
- Christian, p. 107
- Lois Parkinson Zamora. 2006. The Inordinate Eye: New World Baroque and Latin American Fiction. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- "From Village Boy to Soldier, Martyr and, Many Say, Saint" The New York Times, November 21, 2003.
- Watson, Julie. "Residents along U.S.-Mexican border find strength in local folk saints", AP, December 16, 2001
- Griffith p. 19.
- Christian pp. 108–109.
- Graziano, p. 29
- A., F. S. (1875). "The Editor Box". The Penny Post. J.H. Parker. 25: 81. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
- AsiaNews.it. "Controversy in Moscow: Stalin icon revered". www.asianews.it. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
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- "Istorijat manastira Rajinovac".
- "NAROD VERUJE DA IZVOR NADOMAK BEOGRADA IMA SVETU VODU KOJA ISCELJUJE: Neverovatna priča krije se iza imena manastira kod Grocke".
This article incorporates material from the Citizendium article "Folk saint", which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL.
Sources
- Graziano, Frank (2007). Cultures of Devotion: Folk Saints of Spanish America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517130-3.
- Griffith, James S. (2003). Folk Saints of the Borderlands: Victims, Bandits & Healers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers. ISBN 1-887896-51-1.
- Macklin, B.J.; N.R. Crumrine (1973). "Three North Mexican Folk Saint Movements". Comparative Studies in Society and History. pp. 89–105.