If the question is what is the worst job in history, the answer is in 18th century England: the “sin eaters”
Have you had a sinful life, full of vices and excesses, but you don’t want that to condemn you to eternal fire? No problem. You just have to make sure that, once you die, your family hires a ‘sin-eater’, a freelance that a small feast will be given on your coffin on the day of your funeral. A term will take with it all the faults you committed in life, no matter how serious or reprehensible they may have been. The ‘sin-eater’ charged for his services, of course, but… How much would you (or your family) pay for eternal life? It sounds strange, but the job of sin-eater It existed centuries ago in some regions of Great Britain. In fact, the newspaper archive allows follow his trail until the 19th. Sin Eaters? Exact. And it’s not a metaphor. Natalie Zarrelli, from Atlas Obscura, calls him “worst freelance job ever” and you’re probably right. The no eater (‘comesins’ or sin-eaters) were just what the word indicates: people who fed on the faults of other people who had died suddenly, without time to expire their guilt. They did not do it out of hobby or because they followed an elaborate (and dismal) medieval diet based on sacrilege, but because that was their job. He no eater He arrived at the wakes, participated in a ritual to free the deceased from his sins, and then left silently with a few coins in his pocket. Where did it exist? There is not much information about them, although references can be found in works such as ‘Brand’s Faiths and Folklore’ either ‘Hill and Valley’an essay published by Catherine Sinclair in the 19th century. In recent years, media articles such as Atlas Obscurathe platform specialized in religion Aleteia or (more recently) the magazine National Geographic. The writer and teacher Megan Campisi He also researched it for his novel The Sin Eater. Thanks to them we can obtain some glimpses of this ancient craft, which took shape centuries ago in Great Britain. And when did they exist? The ‘sin eaters’ worked mainly in certain regions of England, Scotland or Wales and their trade continued with ups and downs since at least the 17th century (some they go back even furtherassociating it with a heritage from the Middle Ages) until the end of the 19th century. In fact there is some reference to a no eater who died already at the beginning of the 20th century and his grave can still be visited today. His figure was based on a mixture of superstitions, paganism and Christianity, all against the backdrop of the religious changes that England experienced starting in the 16th century. In fact there is who slides that its role may have arisen in an attempt to recover popular traditions after the Anglican Reformation. What exactly were they doing? The ‘sin-eaters’ were the central figure of a relatively simple ritual that sought to erase the guilt of the deceased. The family of the deceased placed a piece of bread and a bowl of beer or milk on the chest of the corpse and then called the no eaterwho only had to do one thing: sit before the corpse and eat and drink the food that was supposed to have absorbed the sins of the deceased. A simple gesture with which they made other people’s stains their own. How did they do it? “He would sit facing the door. They would give him a fourpence piece, which he would put in his pocket; a crust of bread, which he would eat; and a bowl full of beer, which he would drink in one gulp. After this, rising from his stool, he would pronounce, with a serene gesture: ‘the peace and rest of the departed soul’, for which he would pawn his own soul.” relates a work published in the 19th century. After the mediation of the ‘sin-eater’, the deceased was supposed to be free of reproaches that could condemn him to hell. Of course, the opposite happened to him: those faults of others ended up weighing on his spiritual record. Was it bad business? It is assumed that the majority of the sin-eaters were humble people, with few resources, for whom a new day of hunger represented a much worse prospect than a supposed eternity of damnation in the flames. Although they only received a few coins in exchange for their work, the job was quite painful. And not only for religious reasons. Some versions They maintain that, by ‘devouring’ the sins of others, the no eater went on to become an outcastsomeone who blurred his soul. Was it that serious? Yes. A ‘sin-eater’ who is not very religious, atheist or even ‘infidel’ might not care too much about participating in the ritual in exchange for a couple of coins, a loaf of bread and a bowl of beer, but he knew that his work would entail an extra sacrifice: the “manifest contempt” from his neighbors, for whom he became a kind of pest, someone to avoid. The families requested his services, invited him to their homes, paid for his service and sometimes the no eater He even listened to the confessions of mourning relatives, but once the ritual was over, no one wanted to have him around. What was its origin? Difficult to specify. In her article, Natalie Zarelli remember that some theories relate the figure of the no eater with pagan traditions, others connect it with the medieval custom of nobles paying the poor to pray for their dead and the salvation of their souls. In a way, the ‘sin eaters’ are also related to other deep-rooted traditionssuch as the belief that living relatives can intercede for their dead, the figure of purgatory or the symbolic value of food. When did they disappear? In the 19th century, when Sinclair wrote his book, ‘sin-eaters’ were already on the decline in England, but that does not mean that they had disappeared. His trail can be followed until … Read more
