An Anima Sola—or Lonely Souls—stands naked, wrapped in a blanket of fire. From her expression she does not look like someone in pain, but rather someone who is patiently waiting for the prayers of the faithful to break her bracelets of chain. Only then will she be saved from purgatory, a temporary place of suffering, and delivered to heaven. Traditionally the Anima Sola looks towards heaven as her ultimate destination but with this statue she looks straight at us to make a personal appeal. I'm here, I’m waiting, don’t forget about me.

Her story comes out of the Roman Catholic Church and dates back to 1545, Italy but has traveled and evolved as Catholicism has traveled and evolved with the colonization of people and the synthesization of their own pre-existing traditions. Some folk interpretations say it is unrequited love that has brought Anima Sola to her predicament. That only the desperate love of another who invokes her in their love spell pledging to replace her when it is their time will free her. And so it goes.

5” X 2” X 2”