The Miraculous Life of El Niño Fidencio

Mexico is a predominantly Catholic country; however, as official saints are revered throughout the country, so are some others that the Church does not accept. For example, Jesús Malverde is the patron saint of drug dealers, Juan Soldado is that of migrants, and the Santa Muerte that of criminals. VICE Mexico has been documenting these cultural phenomena in its series called “Mexicalia”. In this new episode, we traveled to Espinazo, a little town with a population of 400 in Northern Mexico, to witness the annual celebration of the “Niño Fidencio” — one of these popular saints — which more than 40 thousand people attend. José de Jesús El Niño Fidencio Constantino Síntora was a man who earned a huge number of followers during the Mexican Revolution due to his gift of healing people. It is said that he used to perform surgery without any kind of medical equipment and caused his patients no pain. He made it so disabled people could walk again and blind people could see. He is even said to have been able to cure Mexican president Plutarco Elías Calles’s leprosy. His followers affirm that his spirit still heals people by possessing the bodies of his followers. These people then heal their worshipers by putting them on a swing and either throwing fruit at them, or submerging them in a mud puddle. Watch more Episodes of Mexicalia: http://bit.ly/Mexicalia Click here to subscribe to VICE: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE Check out our full video catalog: http://bit.ly/VICE-Videos Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideos Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice Follow VICE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vice Read our Tumblr: http://vicemag.tumblr.com Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vice Check out our Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/vicemag