Mexican new religious movement, female deity, and folk saint
Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, often shortened to Santa Muerte, is a new religious movement, female deity, folk-Catholic saint, and folk saint in Mexican folk Catholicism and neo-paganism. 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 and Evangelical Protestant denominations, her following has become increasingly prominent since the turn of the 21st century.
