Sin Eaters: The People Who Literally Ate Your Sins for Money

In Wales, Scotland, and parts of England, when someone died with unconfessed sins, families would hire a sin eater - a social outcast who would eat a ritual meal placed on or near the corpse, magically absorbing all the deceased's sins and allowing them into heaven. In exchange for this service, the sin eater received a few coins and became damned in the dead person's place.

The ritual was grim - a loaf of bread and bowl of beer would be passed over the dead body or placed on the chest, then the sin eater would consume it while the family watched. With each bite, they believed the sins transferred from the corpse to the living sin eater. Some accounts describe sin eaters speaking the sins aloud as they ate, literally consuming lies, theft, adultery, and wors ...