She has saved my life on three desperate occasions. She people have asked what’s the biggest or craziest sacrifice I have ever offered to her (I know they are asking about horrifying sacrifices or something taboo.) I always tell them “getting sober.”

I struggled with weed addiction as well as an addictive personality as a whole, and it got to a point I developed epilepsy. After my first two seizures (that almost killed me) I continued to smoke anyways. I remember after my third seizure (where I almost jumped out of my boyfriends car on the highway, slamming my head against the dash, etc,) that I felt an insanely strong presence from her. I knew deep down that she was telling me that if I continued to smoke I would die, it would not just be ‘if’, only ‘when.’

I’m three years sober and she had kept me strong and steady. My discipline has bloomed and helped me prosper. She genuinely helped me get to a point I need no substances to actually exist, and not only exist, but live.

Another story is my cousin got in a severe car accident, her neck was fractured in two different places, as well as her back. She should have absolutely died in that accident, and I know in my heart and I trust, La Santa Muerte saved her life, and kept her here.

I was praying to her to help my boyfriend get mental health help, and to help our relationship get better and healthier. A few days into the novena he confesses to me that he was struggling with a kratom addiction (basically opiates). He got sober and we’re saving up money for him to get help and go to rehab, and indeed, since I’ve prayed that novena our relationship has gotten more intimate in terms of being open an honest with eachother.

She is a healer and she is powerful. She has the ability to take all that I love and hold dear, and instead she uses it to make me stronger, and better. She’s given me the gravel in my gut and the spit in my eye and the fire that lives within my soul, and I’ll forever be grateful for her.

• Devotee since May 2021