The term “sin eater” refers to an individual that absolves the sins of the recently deceased. Consequently, by doing this it frees the soul of the one who passed on. This allows those who have died to eternally rest in peace and prevents the dead from getting trapped in the ghostly realm.
In many aspects, Jesus has often been referred to as a sin eater because he offered his life to cleanse the sins of all mankind. Other examples of sin eaters are Tlazdteotl, the Aztec Goddess of purification during the Meso-American Civilization and then from more modern times, Richard Munslow of Shropshire, England who died in 1906.
The ritual of a sin eater is the chanting of a prayer or spell prior to drinking wine and eating bread over the deceased individual’s body. Therefore, symbolically devouring their sins. By doing this not only does it purify one’s soul, but it supposedly helps give solace to the living by giving them assurance that the dead can move onto the afterlife “guilt free”.
In past times, the individuals that took on the roles of sin eaters did so voluntarily and carried the sins of the deceased for the rest of their lives. In many cases, sin eaters were chosen from society’s destitute. Aside from the bread and wine that the sin eaters were given to consume over the dead, they were also paid in coins for their services. The life of a sin eater was nothing lavish and even though they aided in the cleansing of souls, the sin eaters were still looked upon with little dignity.
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~ Sheila Renee Parker on Twitter @sheilarparker.
SHEILA RENEE PARKER 
A sin water could never be fully included with the so with that s/he ate the sins of for the very nature of the job. And there wasn’t a soul to eat the sins that the sin eater partook of, rather it was sure way to damnation eternal.
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I would be a death eater
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If there were sin-eaters in Washington D.C. today, I suspect they would all be obese—sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😉 Seriously, I’ve never heard of sin-eaters. So today, again, I’ve learned something new.
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Original and interesting… sin-eaters! I’m intrigued 🙂
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I first learned of this concept via the Heath Ledger movie “The Sin Eater” (aka “The Order”), where he plays a priest charged with tracking down and exorcising demons, who happens to encounter a Sin Eater in Rome. In the movie, the SE is super-wealthy and semi-immortal, selling his services to all sorts of greedy and corrupt types, like a sleazy defence lawyer for the afterlife!
(Note: I do own the movie, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it…)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_(2003_film)
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I was just gonna say …
Sounds like a great plot for a film, until I saw the response above, about the film, with Heath Ledger in it.
I wanna see it!
Conversely, what happens when someone prefers cremation to the ritual of burial?
What happens to their sins?
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Good question… I suppose prior to cremation, a sin eater could still preform the ritual of “sin eating”.
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Perhaps.
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Intriguing article
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Thank you!
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Awesome!
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Glad you liked it! 🙂
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Reblogged this on mira prabhu and commented:
Sin eaters…what a vivid and intriguing term…among the eastern mystics, the great sages, it is said that many take on the karma of thousands and it is why they suffer as they do…Ramana Maharshi for instance passed away of excruciating cancer…thank you Sheila Renee Parker and Steven Fox.
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