As a specialist in the Mexican religious landscape I had visited the Saint Jude shrine in Mexico City several times, but this time I was fortunate to be in town for his annual feast day on October 28. I had come to Mexico City for research on Day of the Dead, but there was no way I was going to miss the annual fiesta of Mexico’s most popular Catholic saint, the patron of lost causes, so I headed to San… Read more
November 8, 2019
Mexico’s Patron of Lost Causes – A Photographic Portrait of Saint Jude on His Feast Day
November 8, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
October 22, 2019
Catholic Cartels? Ovidio Guzman and the Narco-Saints of Mexico
October 22, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Professor Andrew Chesnut A widely circulated photo of Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of notorious narco kingpin El Chapo Guzman, wearing a pendant of the Holy Infant of Atocha reminded us that it’s not only Latin American folk saints who serve as narco-saints but also a number of Catholic ones. Last week the 28 year-old narco, who has taken on a leading role in the Sinaloa Cartel in his father’s stead, was briefly… Read more
October 11, 2019
Competing for Amazonian Souls – The Amazon Synod and Pentecostal Competition in the Global South
October 11, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
2 Comments
By Professor Andrew Chesnut and Doctor Kate Kingsbury* While the Catholic Church adopts a preferential option for Amazonians, Amazonians themselves are opting for Pentecostalism. One of the most under-reported stories of the Amazon Synod currently taking place at the Vatican is the dynamic of religious competition in a region that included nine South American countries, most importantly Brazil. Since the 1970s the Church in Latin America, which is home to 40% of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, has been hemorrhaging… Read more
October 1, 2019
Mexican Folk Saint Santa Muerte – The Fastest Growing New Religious Movement in the West
October 1, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
1 Comment
Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut Santa Muerte, Saint Death and Holy Death in English, is now the fastest growing new religious movement in the West. There are no surveys of the number of devotees, but with 10 years of research experience, we estimate some 12 million followers, with 70% in Mexico, 15% in the U.S., 10% in Central America, and the remaining 5% mostly in South America. There are also small groups of devotees surfacing in… Read more
August 29, 2019
Pentecostal Gangs in Rio de Janeiro Ratchet Up Their Persecution of Afro-Brazilian Religions under President Bolsonaro
August 29, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
Co-authored by Dr. Ana Keila Mosca Pinezi* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut Brazilian history since the Colonial era is marked by the enslavement of Africans and by institutionalized racism which has permeated the social fabric of the nation. As such, Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions are often seen as demonic, stigmatized as evil emanating from malignant spirits. Capoeira, samba, and maracatu, even if they are very popular, are seen as manifestations related to the world of evil. But it’s in the realm of… Read more
August 16, 2019
Holy Child of Raffles – The Mexican Christ Child Asleep on a Skull
August 16, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
Having researched the Mexican skeleton saint Santa Muerte for the past decade I am quite accustomed to death imagery. However, when I first came across a photo of the Holy Child of Raffles (el Santo Niño de las Suertes) I was taken aback. As a specialist in Latin American religion I am used to seeing the myriad advocations of the Christ Child. There’s el Niño Doctor wearing a doctor’s smock who as one might imagine is most often beseeched for… Read more
July 9, 2019
Brazil’s Black Supernatural Sister Queens: Our Lady of Aparecida and Oxum
July 9, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut In a country with the world’s second largest Black population, it’s no surprise that many of the most popular religious figures in Brazil are conceived of as African or derived from Africa. For example, the Orixás or gods the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé are of Yoruban lineage presided over by Yemanja, the goddess of the sea. Likewise, one of the three major types of spirit guides in the less Afrocentric religion… Read more
July 9, 2019
Brazil’s Black Sister Supernatural Queens – Oxum and Our Lady of Aparecida
July 9, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
Co-authored by Dr. Kate Kingsbury* and Dr. Andrew Chesnut In a country with the world’s second largest Black population, it’s no surprise that many of the most popular religious figures in Brazil are conceived of as African or derived from Africa. For example, the Orixás or gods the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé are of Yoruban lineage presided over by Yemanja, the goddess of the sea. Likewise, one of the three major types of spirit guides in the less Afrocentric religion… Read more
June 17, 2019
Loving Saint Paulinus: Patron Saint of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
June 17, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
By Guest Contributor Dr. Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada* Nola, a small town outside of Naples in the Campania region of Southern Italy, and Williamsburg, the premiere trendiest neighborhood in New York, are approximately 4,394 miles apart. Nola with its stone streets and ancient grit, is in the shadow of Vesuvius, while Williamsburg is ultra-gentrified and punctuated by high-rise glass condominiums and the shells of old Brooklyn factories. Still, both are central to Italian-American Catholic practice in Brooklyn. What these places share is… Read more
May 30, 2019
President Jair Messias Bolsonaro as Messiah for Brazilian Pentecostals
May 30, 2019 By Andrew Chesnut
0 Comments
By guest contributor *Dr. Ana Keila Mosca Pinezi The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus or IURD) is a complex that involves a media empire not only aimed at propagating its religious and moral precepts and proselytizing, but also expressing the extraordinary growth of the Evangelicals in Brazil, especially that of neo-Pentecostalism, which has Prosperity and Health Theology at its heart. The neo-Pentecostal Evangelicals are a clear threat both to traditional and to… Read more
get the latest from
The Global Catholic Review
Sign up for our newsletter
Browse Our Archives
TRENDING AT PATHEOS Catholic
