This is a pretty cool news item about a growing saint cult in Mexico, revolving around a figure they call “Saint Death” or “Santa Muerte”. I’ve also seen it spelled “La Santisima Muerte“.

Basically, the figure looks like the Grim Reaper, but is seen more to be a sort of variant on the Virgin Mary, or something like that. It is a folk cult which started in the 60’s, is officially outlawed by the Catholic Church, and attracts followers from the poor and oppressed to prisoners, crooks and big-time drug lords. People say it relates to the same roots that the Day of the Dead festival springs from. I like this quote about it from another article:

“God helps the good and the devil helps the bad, but death treats everyone the same,” said Blanquita Tamez, a Monterrey spiritual counselor who calls on Saint Death for worshippers.

Even though this cult is supposedly gaining a lot of popularity, there doesn’t seem to be much about it online besides what I have linked above. Oh wait, here’s another page with a bit of good info.