Sin-eater

The term sin-eater refers to a person who, through ritual means, would take on by means of food and drink the sins of a household, often because of a recent death, thus absolving the soul and allowing that person to rest in peace. In the study of folklore sin-eating is considered a form of religious magic.
This ritual is said to have been practised in parts of England and Scotland, and allegedly survived until the late 19th or early 20th century in Wales and the adjoining Welsh Marches of Shropshire and Herefordshire, as well as certain portions of Appalachia in America (documented in the Foxfire cultural history series). Traditionally, it was performed by a beggar, and certain villages maintained their own sin-eaters. They would be brought to the dying person's bedside, where a relative would place a crust of bread on the breast of the dying and pass a bowl of ale to him over the corpse. After praying or reciting the ritual, he would then drink and remove the bread from the breast and eat it, the act of which would remove the sin from the dying person and take it into himself.^{[citation needed]}

History

Although the figure of the sin-eater has had various references in modern culture, the questions of how common the practice was, what regions of the world in which it was most common, and what the interactions between sin-eaters, common people, and religious authorities were, remain largely unstudied and in the realm of folklore.
Tlazolteotl, the Aztec goddess of earth, motherhood and fertility, had a redemptive role in the religious practices of the Meso-American civilization. At the end of an individual's life, he was allowed to confess his misdeeds to this deity, and according to legend she would cleanse his soul by "eating its filth".
A local legend in Shropshire, England, concerns the grave of Richard Munslow, who died in 1906, said to be the last sin-eater of the area:^[1]

"By eating bread and drinking ale, and by making a short speech at the graveside, the sin-eater took upon themselves the sins of the deceased". The speech was written as: "I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man. Come not down the lanes or in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen".^[2]

The 1926 book Funeral Customs by Bertram S. Puckle mentions the sin-eater:

"Professor Evans of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, actually saw a sin-eater about the year 1825, who was then living near Llanwenog, Cardiganshire. Abhorred by the superstitious villagers as a thing unclean, the sin-eater cut himself off from all social intercourse with his fellow creatures by reason of the life he had chosen; he lived as a rule in a remote place by himself, and those who chanced to meet him avoided him as they would a leper. This unfortunate was held to be the associate of evil spirits, and given to witchcraft, incantations and unholy practices; only when a death took place did they seek him out, and when his purpose was accomplished they burned the wooden bowl and platter from which he had eaten the food handed across, or placed on the corpse for his consumption".^[3]

Howlett mentions sin-eating as an old custom in Hereford, and thus describes the practice: 'The corpse being taken out of the house, and laid on a bier, a loaf of bread was given to the sin-eater over the corpse, also a maga-bowl of maple, full of beer. These consumed, a fee of sixpence was given him for the consideration of his taking upon himself the sins of the deceased, who, thus freed, would not walk after death.'"
The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica states in its article on "sin eaters":

"A symbolic survival of it (sin eating) was witnessed as recently as 1893 at Market Drayton, Shropshire. After a preliminary service had been held over the coffin in the house, a woman poured out a glass of wine for each bearer and handed it to him across the coffin with a 'funeral biscuit.' In Upper Bavaria sin-eating still survives: a corpse cake is placed on the breast of the dead and then eaten by the nearest relative, while in the Balkan peninsula a small bread image of the deceased is made and eaten by the survivors of the family. The Dutch doed-koecks or 'dead-cakes', marked with the initials of the deceased, introduced into America in the 17th century, were long given to the attendants at funerals in old New York. The 'burial-cakes' which are still made in parts of rural England, for example Lincolnshire and Cumberland, are almost certainly a relic of sin-eating".^[4]

Sin-eater in popular culture

• An episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, aired February 23, 1972, was entitled "The Sins of the Fathers." It took place in 19th-century Wales, and involved a young man (played by Richard Thomas) who is forced to play the role of sin-eater at the wake of his father (who had been sin-eater for the area). The fare laid out for this sin-eater went well beyond bread and beer.^[5]
• M. John Harrison's story "Strange Great Sins" (part of the Viriconium sequence), is about a sin eater who recalls the life of his uncle while performing a sin eating ceremony for the family of a small girl who has died.
• Leigh Blackmore's story "Soul Food" (a script for one of the Deadlocke and Doc Marten comic stories by Christopher Sequeira) is about a sin eating ceremony.
• Sin Eater was the name of a minor villain in late-1970s/mid-1980s Marvel Comics stories.
• In chapter six of the novel Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian a volunteer seaman who reveals his past as a sin eater is ostracized by the crew, prompting a brief discussion between the characters Dr. Maturin and Lieutenant Dillon of traditions of sin eating in England and Ireland.
• Precious Bane by Mary Webb (book 1924, film 1989) set in Shropshire. Performing sin-eating is a major element in the development of the main character Gideon.
• Sineater is the title and subject of a Bram Stoker award-winning novel by Elizabeth Massie (1998) - about the practice in Appalachia.
• The 2003 Brian Helgeland film The Order starring Heath Ledger deals with a sin eater in Rome in the modern day.
• The 2009 Lorelei Shannon novel Possum Kingdom features a sin-eater as a character central to the story.
• Mexican wrestler Cybernetico is nicknamed "devorador de pecados" or "sin eater" in Spanish.
• The second song on the 2010 album AgriDustrial by punk blues band Legendary Shack Shakers is titled "Sin Eater."
• In the movie The Final Cut (2004), Alan Hakman, played by Robin Williams, describes sin eaters at length and compares himself as a modern day sin eater, who 'cuts' away sins of the dead people from the memory chip placed in their brain leaving behind only sanitized portions of their lives for the people to remember.
• Jaeger, the protagonist in Carla Speed McNeill's comic book series Finder is a sin-eater.
• The Last Sin Eater is the title of a novel by Francine Rivers (1998) and a movie based on the novel that was released in 2007. The story involves a group of Welsh immigrants in Appalachia in 1850.
• The Sin Collector is a 2012 novel written by Jessica Fortunato. It tells the tale of modern-day Sin-Eaters and their battle against a secret society known as The Castus who seek to eradicate them.
• In the 2012 film The Bourne Legacy modern covert operatives are compared to sin eaters.

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