San Simon (with Rey Pascual and Lucifer)

The three figures here are each Guatemalan Folk Saints. The central one is San Simon, or Saint Simone, also called Maximon. Because it is customary to appease the saint with gifts of tobacco and alcohol he has become known as the Saint of Bad Habits. My knowledge of him was initially through the importation of the cult to Missouri by the artist David Ford. The Kansas City veneration of the saint was unique, and became a staple of the holidays that were celebrated by the city’s artistic subculture. A local man was selected each year to personify the saint, and was ritually given intoxicating substances and exposed to all manner of avarice on two or three different occasions throughout the year. His dress was dark, caped, and somewhat Spaniard in appearance. He was often carried on a throne in a procession, surrounded at most times by several altars, which were commonly stacked with liquor and cigarettes, as well as with flowers and idols. Over the course of the years the practice did take on a particular occult aspect, as rituals will do if often repeated. The group of celebrants in Missouri was small but strong, and it still isn’t uncommon to find altars to Saint Simone in the houses of the artists there.

Be all that as it may, that was my exposure to this saint. With some interest in him I briefly studied other folk saints of Guatemala. Rey Pascual is an interesting saint who is believed to be able to communicate with the dead. For this reason he is pictured as a skeleton, but one in bishop’s dress, often with a cross. The third is Lucifer, the name which they give to the Devil, who is treated as somewhat of a saint in the Guatemalan culture since they ritually offer him gifts, but in order to persuade him to stay away from them. My depiction of the Devil is the same as my treatment of him in other paintings, with the goat skull tied to his head.

 

Return to "San Simon, with Rey Pascual and Lucifer."

 

(Paintings that feature the Devil as a man with a goat skull tied to his head are "Death and the Devil," "Witches' Sabbath," "Temptation of Christ," and "San Simon, with Rey Pascual and Lucifer.")