Go ahead, kick that kitty! You're covered.

July 13, 2007 11:44 AM

Feel like you've racked up too many sins to be admitted into Heaven? Fret not, my evil friend... just hire a Sin Eater to gobble them all up for you. Voila! More here.
posted by miss lynnster (43 comments total)

From the links:

Sin Eating was a ritual where bread and salt would be placed on the chest of the deceased. The Sin Eater would take the bread and break it; some ritualistic words would be spoken and the salt and bread consumed. A cup of beer or wine would then also be consumed by the Sin Eater, who would be given a coin; sometimes a sixpence, as part of the ritual. The purpose of the ritual, was to absorb the sins of the deceased, so that he or she may be purified. The ritual varied throughout Europe and in some places, the Sin Eater would blow the sins into a metal bottle.

*****

In 1945 a folklorist said he had heard of a few 19th-century cases in East Anglia where "some unsuspecting person, usually a tramp" was given bread and salt which had been laid on a corpse, thus acquiring its sins; he said tramps still avoided houses where there had been a death, for fear of this trick... In 1958 came more second-hand information from the Fens: an old lady who had died in 1906 had been told, when young, how a woman who was a sineater ("who, incidentally, was shunned by all the villagers") had qualified herself for the task. She had taken so much poppy-tea that she seemed to be dying, and the minister gave her absolution; she recovered, and was told by her friends that now that she was free of her own sins she could take on other people's, which she used to do by eating bread and salt laid on the shrouds of the dead and being paid thirty pennies, whitewashed to look like silver...
posted by miss lynnster at 11:46 AM on July 13, 2007

Wow. That's much cheaper than buying a papal indulgence. I need to be more careful with my sixpences.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:47 AM on July 13, 2007

The TV show 'Night Gallery' did a segment on Sin Eating. Richard Thomas was the Sin Eater.
posted by doctorschlock at 11:49 AM on July 13, 2007

Its good work if you can get it.
posted by Sailormom at 11:50 AM on July 13, 2007

The 2003 Heath Ledger movie The Order was all about Sin Eaters and how they were considered by the Catholic Church to be heretics because they offered a way into heaven that was not through the Church. I though it was an awesome movie, especially with all the references to the occult and stuff.

But that's my input on that.
posted by daq at 11:53 AM on July 13, 2007

I wouldn't do that all by myself. I'd hire a friend to help and together we'd be co-sin eaters.
posted by cog_nate at 11:54 AM on July 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

The best sin eater would grab your porn or sex-toys before the kids or wifey found them.
posted by doctorschlock at 11:57 AM on July 13, 2007

I don't believe in sin, but if you're worried you have too much bacon, I'll eat that for you.

Oh, and way to go off on a tangent, cog_nate.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:06 PM on July 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Of course, if you sin too much then your sin-eater itself will be committing the sin of gluttony, which will require the purchase of a secondary sin-eater to service your first.
posted by DU at 12:07 PM on July 13, 2007

Save your money, I have already eaten all of your sins - absolutely free of charge, no obligation no salesman will visit your home.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:13 PM on July 13, 2007

You've read the FPP!!!! Now, see the movie!!!!
posted by The Deej at 12:14 PM on July 13, 2007

I'm having trouble seeing the function of your comment, Wolfdog.
posted by cog_nate at 12:14 PM on July 13, 2007

Well then you're not only irrational, but dense.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:15 PM on July 13, 2007

insert johnny the homicidal maniac reference here.
posted by shmegegge at 12:16 PM on July 13, 2007

If there were two Popes, they'd be co-See. Can't you imagine this joke getting out of hand?
posted by notsnot at 12:20 PM on July 13, 2007

Whatever, that's just hyperbola.
posted by cog_nate at 12:20 PM on July 13, 2007

Mmmm, sacrilicious!
posted by blue_beetle at 12:21 PM on July 13, 2007

Of course, if you sin too much then your sin-eater itself will be committing the sin of gluttony, which will require the purchase of a secondary sin-eater to service your first.

This is known in the industry as "resinsurance".
posted by cortex at 12:22 PM on July 13, 2007

This just begging to be transformed into an edgy noughties reimagining of Pac-Man. Wakka wakka.
posted by slimepuppy at 12:22 PM on July 13, 2007

I think I first read of this in Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native. Could be the memory playing up.
A far more modern way to consume your sins is on a lightly toasted focaccia with just the merest drizzle of an olive-oil-based dressing.
posted by Abiezer at 12:25 PM on July 13, 2007

The arc of the tangent going on here seems more obtuse than dense, or am I just grasping at angels' angles?
posted by nomisxid at 12:27 PM on July 13, 2007

free beer *and* free money? sounds like the best job ever! where do i sign up?
posted by the painkiller at 12:29 PM on July 13, 2007

Spider-Man and Daredevil have both had run-ins with the Sin-Eater.
posted by GavinR at 12:29 PM on July 13, 2007

Very acute of you, nomisxid.
posted by cog_nate at 12:33 PM on July 13, 2007

Ranking modern Sin-Eaters (PDF).
posted by bonehead at 12:42 PM on July 13, 2007

MORE LIKE OBTUSE, IF YOU ASK ME.
posted by quonsar at 12:44 PM on July 13, 2007

Not obtuse per se-cant you see the humor?
posted by FuturisticDragon at 12:52 PM on July 13, 2007

Since GavinR brought up Sin Eaters in comics, a Finder reference is required.
posted by hackwolf at 12:55 PM on July 13, 2007

I always assume Rowling's 'Death Eaters' came from this, but then again I always assumed she swiped the whole reluctant- bespectactled- owl- owning- English- orphan- destined- to- be- worlds- most- powerful- wizard thing from Neil Gaiman's Tim Hunter anyway.

Might just be me.
posted by rokusan at 12:59 PM on July 13, 2007

I've been told that consuming alcohol in excess is a sin...

I must be a sin drinker.

shmegegge : insert johnny the homicidal maniac reference here.

See? It changes color when it dries! I need to keep the wall wet!
posted by quin at 1:04 PM on July 13, 2007

I'm acute-T-π
posted by nomisxid at 1:04 PM on July 13, 2007

no prob, except people treat you like shit AFTER you've eaten then sins of their loved ones.
How fucking cruel is that?
They pelt you with stones, bread, eggs Its so unfair really.
posted by Wilder at 1:45 PM on July 13, 2007

The acute rash of bad puns in this thread is about to turn chronic.
posted by Mister_A at 1:53 PM on July 13, 2007

Al Gore paid me to be a carbon footprint eater.
posted by leftcoastbob at 1:58 PM on July 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sin-eaters come in for a mention in the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels, as well. I believe the character, Cheslin, appears in Master and Commander.
posted by scrump at 2:09 PM on July 13, 2007

It's catbon offsetting - for souls!

...what? someone beat me to it? pff.
posted by Artw at 2:10 PM on July 13, 2007

What's a catbon?
posted by konolia at 2:32 PM on July 13, 2007

Le bon chat!
posted by Artw at 2:34 PM on July 13, 2007

A French LOLCAT?
posted by wendell at 3:39 PM on July 13, 2007

You're telling me there's free bread, wine or beer, and a sixpence... and people passed this up? Suckers.
posted by 0xFCAF at 3:50 PM on July 13, 2007

As an atheist, my profit senses are tingling.

Ooh. Tingly.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:05 PM on July 13, 2007

Save our souls!
Why? We're never short of arseholes.
posted by Abiezer at 10:34 PM on July 13, 2007

I'd be afraid they would spit my sins right back out.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:26 AM on July 14, 2007