In Cebu, a Good Friday Encounter with Devotees of the ‘Saint of Death’

Argao, Cebu—There were three of them but they said they numbered more. They sat on the sofa beside a crowned skeleton made of ivory called La Muerte. The Death. But to them, the relic is La Santa Muerte, a saint to whom they pray and talk about in deeply personal terms; as if she could hear everything they said.

“When we die,” one earnestly told me that Good Friday noon, “she will greet us as we move to eternal life.”

The current guardians of La Muerte claim that the relic is centuries old, dating back to the 1700s

We were inside the house of Gwendolyn Aguilar Montañez in Argao, a town 79 kilometers south of Cebu City. Argao is a heritage town with deeply religious people. That strong religiosity was evident in two Holy Week processions that seemed to draw an unending stream of devotees: the Pasos on Spy Wednesday and the Good Friday procession.

ALSO READ

In the Mountains of Cebu, Traditionalist Catholics Keep the Faith

In This Small Chapel, Believers Pray for Divine Justice to 'San Antonio Maldito'

Montañez is the current guardian of the La Muerte relic, which is said to have been handed down through generations of the Aguilar clan. They told me the relic is centuries old, dating back to the 1700s. For the family and for the town, it's a memento mori device; a reminder of human mortality.

La Muerte on Good Friday

Montañez and her family were busy preparing La Muerte and her carriage for the Good Friday procession late that afternoon. Roberto Rubia Alcazar, who is now 82, said he has been helping prepare the relic for the procession since 1986. In all those years, Alcazar said, La Muerte led the Good Friday procession. The relic is assembled on Good Friday and disassembled after the procession, with the parts kept in a box for protection.

It was only under the current term of Argao parish priest Father Antonio Zamora, Jr. that the relic was barred from entering the church compound. Alcazar claimed that police officers enforced the ban the first time they were not allowed into the compound. They still managed to join the procession, though, by waiting outside and positioning the La Muerte Carroza at the very beginning. On this Good Friday, they were preparing to again insert themselves at the head of the procession.

The carroza bearing the La Muerte relic inserts itself at the head of the Good Friday procession in Argao. The parish priest banned the relic from the church compound

Monsignor Elias Matarlo, an Argao native who now runs a monastery in Barili town, said La Muerte is nothing but a reminder of mortality and our changed view of death after Jesus Christ’s resurrection. He said people misunderstand the relic and attribute miracles to it. He also blames a sensationalized report that linked La Muerte to the Santa Muerte cult in Mexico for people’s erroneous conclusions about the relic.

Father Zamora told me that the La Muerte skeleton was no longer needed to remind people of mortality; the Santo Entierro or Holy Burial sufficed.

The Santa Muerte tradition

In the Montañez house, the three Santa Muerte devotees gathered near the relic. Of the three, only Dance Alvarez, 46, gave his name. He identified himself as a psychic, spiritualist, tarot card reader, feng shui master, and business consultant. He served as spiritual leader of the group and referred to his followers as clients.

Alvarez said Santa Muerte came to him in a dream in May 2017, but he did not recognize her. It was only in October 2017, when a client gave him a large candle with an relic of Santa Muerte and prayer, that he got to know her. He said he learned more about Santa Muerte and the Argao relic during the pandemic. He credits Santa Muerte for changing his life; he said he is gay but ended a string of homosexual relationships, married a lesbian, and were able to have a child even this late in his life.

Alvarez said their belief system is a combination of Catholic and occult practices. He said the Santa Muerte tradition came from Mexico, where criminals and members of the drug cartel are devotees. In his own network, he said Santa Muerte devotees number fewer than 20.

Dance Alvarez (right) and fellow devotees to Santa Muerte with the ivory relic of La Muerte in Argao

Alvarez added that people approach him for help with various problems, including domestic ones, and wanted a quick fix. Santa Muerte is that quick fix, he claimed.

“Naa man koy laing mga santo. Naa koy Santa Rita de Cascia, naa koy Guadalupe, pero kaning mga santo man gud kung naa kay pangayoon kailangan matarong ka, limpyo ka. Unya tawo ra baya ta, naa bayay panahon magpabadlong sab ta dili ta kapangayo dali dali. Pero kini siya, bisag unsa kahugawan, mao na akong duolan permanente kay dili magpa huwat,” Alvarez said. (I have other saints. I have a Santa Rita de Cascia, a Virgin of Guadalupe, but these saints require that you do right, you become a good person when you ask for something. But we’re only humans and sometimes we do bad things. But no matter how dirty you are, she (Santa Muerte) is someone you can approach. She will not make you wait.)

Alvarez dismissed accusations that they were a cult.

“How do you define a cult? Because the Roman Catholic Church is the biggest cult of all time,” he said.

Without Santa Muerte, the devotee said, the Bible is incomplete. “In the Bible, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus died on the cross and stayed dead for three days. He only rose up from the dead on Resurrection Sunday, di ba? Who took care of Jesus Christ during that time nga naa siya sa lubnganan (while he was in the tomb)? It was Santa Muerte because she is death herself. Jesus underwent death, dili na nato ikalimod (that cannot be denied).”

A workman fixes the bulbs on the La Muerte carroza

The group explained that they pray the novena to Santa Muerte, whose feast day they mark on the Day of the Dead. A brochure Alvarez carried that looked worn had the title Santo Rosario ni Sanctissima Muerte. It listed as the first mystery: “Ibinigay ang karit kay Santa Muerte” (The scythe is handed to Santa Muerte.)

The three then showed their own Santa Muerte relics as adults in the Aguilar household, where they completed her carroza outside.

Those helping prepare did so over bottles of beer and alcohol. One of them, Clinton Ortega, said he objects to the practices of the devotees. He just tolerates them so long as they do not intrude into his personal space.

La Santa Muerte in procession

Ortega said he wrote the Chancery of the Archdiocese of Cebu on March 27, 2022 to inform them about the La Muerte tradition and how they were barred from the Good Friday procession by Father Zamora. The Chancery replied on April 8, 2022 acknowledging the letter and said they would write to him when Archbishop Jose Palma decides on the issue. They never wrote back.

With the carroza done, the Aguilar men proceeded to troubleshoot the lights of the float. Some flickered while others did not turn on. After replacement and adjustment, it was pushed to the direction of the Archdiocesan Shrine of San Miguel Arcangel. A portable speaker blared Allegri’s “Miserere mei, Deus” or “Have mercy on me, O God” on a loop.

These Santa Muerte icons were brought to the Good Friday procession by the devotees

On the way to church, La Muerte’s scythe got caught in a hanging wire and fell off. It eventually positioned itself at the head of the procession, followed by a substantial line of people albeit shorter than those that followed the other carrozas carrying more traditional Good Friday relics. A teenager called out a group of friends to invite him to join the “first carroza.”

The three Santa Muerte devotees were in the crowd, cradling their own relics. Alvarez said they would drive back to Cebu City after the procession.

From afar, I saw Alcazar. At the Montañez house, the jolly elderly man kept prodding me if I had more questions and when I said I had none, told me several times, “Isipa lang nga dugay na kita nga higala” (think of us as old friends).

But that offer of friendship was apparently limited to me. Alcazar said he was looking forward to August, when the Archdiocese reassigns priests and Father Zamora is taken out of Argao. He said he prays that the parish priest who will replace Father Zamora will be more welcoming to La Muerte.