In 18th and 19th century England and Scotland, sin eating was a profession.
When a loved one lay dying on the bed, families would call one of these sin eaters home.
This, rather dubiously, provided the departing a way into heaven.
Where Did the Sin Eaters Come From?
The origin of the macabre practice remains elusive.
It was an effort to fill the gap left by the departed Catholic sacraments of confession and absolution.
Sin eaters would often listen to confessions of the dying before they passed.
The idea was to ensure that the victims sins were washed away before they set on their transcendental path.
Other historians suggest that it oddly mimicked the custom of distributing bread among the poor upon someone’s death.
Despite its religious strongholds, sin eating was largely confined to the Welsh marches.
It was a voluntary profession, taken on by those whose hunger overshadowed all sense of morality and mortality.
And yet, in their heyday, sin eaters replaced the role of priests.
But otherwise they were social outcasts, not accepted in any other social or religious congregation.
It was a deal with the devila piece of bread at the cost of a damned, sinning soul.
Gradual Decline
By the 20th century, the declining profession was seeing its own death.
Priests were becoming all the rage once again.
Little evidence of the activity was passed on in history, probably because of its pagan origins.
The undeniable truth was that it was a shame to associate with heretical acts such as this one.
Could this be a reason why sin eaters stopped being called into homes?
Some say the tradition trickled into the United States by way of immigration to the Appalachia.
A Ratlinghope churchyard contains the remains of the last known sin eaterRichard Munslowwho died in 1906.
During his time he briefly revived the practice, though not out of desperation but grief.
As Marie Kereft writes inSlow Travel Shropshire,Munslow possessed about 70 acres of land as a farmer.
He was also the only sin eater who was granted a ceremonious funeral of his own.
In 2010, 1,000 was raised to restore and repair his grave.
Ironically as it may be, the practitioners finally got their farewell with due respect through Munslow.
References:#Gizmodo#Atlas Obscura#Slow Travel Shropshire#Pan Macmillan#BBC
