What Are Patron Sinners?

A patron sinner is a historical figure who particularly exemplifies Satanic values or ideals. Patron sinners are usually subversives, social critics, revolutionaries, artists, heretics, or criminals, although any person can be a great sinner if they significantly undermine arbitrary authority or bankrupt social norms.

Sinners often also have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them seem at least a bit edgier or more challenging than superficially similar activists or artists, and many of them are people we believe have not received due fame or attention.

Bay Area Satanists nominate sinners once per year. Final selections are made via secret rite (secret because we’re always changing it…) and inducted at our yearly Walpurgisnacht celebration on or around April 30.

Praising figures from the past always gets sticky, because more likely than not someone whose ideals or actions we admire also held some other belief we find objectionable, and the judgment calls involved with deciding who it’s appropriate to praise are very subjective.

Still, we’re not calling any of these people saints—definitively.

 

Sinners

Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Semmelweis

“The Semmelweis Effect: The tendency to reject new evidence if it challenges established norms.” 

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Hypatia

Hypatia

“To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing.”

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Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

“You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon.” 

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Divine

Divine

“People who used to make fun are now fans. I had the last laugh.”

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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

“If we’re unwilling to question authority then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power.”

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