In class on Thursday, we discussed the passages we had to read for class. In that discussion it was mentioned that after her retirement as Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau began to devote most of her time to the Roman Catholic Faith and doing charity work. Of Marie's charity works, none caught people's attention more than her prison visits, which got an article in the Daily Picayune. The article stated that Marie would visit prisoners who were about to be executed, erect an altar and pray for them. Though no details about the altars was every found I believe that Marie was building an altar for Baron Samedi, the Loa of the dead and father of the Gede nation to help ease the prisoners' pain and transition to death. This seems to be a reasonable assumption given that fact that Papa Samedi is the Loa that controls the crossroad between life and death and is a great healer.
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