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Mexican Religious Artwork
and Collectors Items
from Fausto's Art Gallery
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San Lázaro Nicho
San Lázaro is for his Cuban believers the saint of the poor. The Miracle Worker, as he is also known, was not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, which canonized another Lazaro. Every December 17 the faithful make pilgrimages from the farthest places on he Island to the Santuario de San Lazaro en El Rincon, just outside the capital, to celebrate his day, present offerings, and complete penitences.
San Lázaro is often invoked for healing. He is very important in Cuban Santeria, where he is known as "Babalú".
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Santa Marta Mexican Nicho
Santa Marta is a very important saint in Mexico. She is used in spells to bring women under the control of their women, or at least to break them of the habit of running around and being disloyal.
In addition, she is seen as a sort of standin for the Santisima Muerte, because her name "Santa Marta" sounds very much like the name "Santa Muerte". Also, the connection is drawn because of her brother, San Lazaro, who came back to life after dying, and who is intimately connected with the notion of the communication with dead souls and other subjects connected with the concept of death.
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Mexican Nicho - Santo Niño de Atocha
The Santo Niño de Atocha is one of the most important saints in Mexico. He has several interesting stories and traditions associated with him. He is best known for his two shrines in the Mexican state of Zacatecas: Fresnillo, the home of the “Blue Santo Niño”, and Plateros, the home of the “Pink Santo Niño”. People pray to the Santo Niño for healing, mainly of children, and they bring children’s shoes to his shrines when they make pilgrimages there. This is because they believe that he wears them out at night when he goes walking about on healing missions, secretly visiting sick children while they are asleep in order to heal them. The famous shrine in Chimayo, New Mexico is a Santo Niño shrine, and pilgrims leave baby shoes there.
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Mexican Santo Nicho - San Ramon Nonato
San Ramon has become a very popular saint in Mexico, where people appeal to him by way of a spell designed to shut up gossips. In this, one acquires and image of the saint, along with a red votive candle. One prays the prayer to him which one finds on the back of his prayer card or his votive candles, and then one asks him to shut up a particular gossip or group of gossips, and then one takes chewing gum and uses it to press a coin over his mouth. One lights the candle and sets it next to the image on ones altar (this is what curanderas do) or else one sets it in some place where it will not be disturbed.
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San Simón Nicho
I first saw San Simón on the altar of a local curandera here, Paty Zacarias.
Paty has a very interesting altar, as most curanderos and curanderas do, but what particilarly drew my attention was a small statue of a man with a cigarrette pressed up against his face. I asked her who that was, and she said that it was San Simón. I asked why he had that cigarrette there, and she said that “you have to give him a cigar” (‘puro’). I supposed that she had her reasons for having substituted a cigarrette - and I suppose I was even thankful for that!
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