Among prayers, celebrations and disputes for a holy skeleton

Abstract

This is a religious study that deals with the popular religiosity that occurs around the cult of San Pascual Bailon in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. The particularity of this saint is that his representation is a wooden skeleton dressed in a Franciscan tunic that remains in a cart-coffin, which is venerated by thousands of people in various parts of the State. In this sense, the objective of the work is to describe and analyze how, from the contemporary socio-religious transformations in Chiapas, various practices of the Mayordomia and Priosteria of Tuxtla have been modified that have an impact on the cult of San Pascual Bailon. For this, the investigation presents the details of the origin of the cult of San Pascualito to this day. Likewise, the ethnography of the patronal feast is exposed, where it is distinguished, the way in which the people live the devotion to San Pascualito and the way in which various religious expressions are combined.