Author: Andie Freeman
Header image: Santos de palo figurines.Photo courtesy of the Mint Museum
For more than 300 years, Puerto Rican artisans have carved wooden sculptures of saints, holy figures, and sacred scenes known as santos de palo. Using cast-off wood blocks and local roots and branches, they created these small figures to help the faithful connect with saints during Catholic worship. These santos were especially important for rural communities, where access to churches and priests remained limited until the twentieth century. Families often placed them on home altars as tools of devotion.
The earliest santos drew inspiration from sacred images reflecting the Spanish Baroque style on prayer cards that traveling priests distributed. Over time, the imagery evolved to reflect local artistic tastes and interpretations of Catholic iconography. Today, the tradition has become a powerful symbol of Puerto Rican cultural pride.
As guest curator, Dorie Reents-Budet, PhD, explains, “Art of Devotion continues the Mint Museum’s long-standing mission to feature craft as art and explore innovative expressions of the human creative spirit. The santo de palo tradition embodies not only spiritual faith but also the cultural pride of contemporary Puerto Rico, intermingling its Catholic heritage with contemporary topics while reflecting its Hispanic, Indigenous Taíno, and Carib and African legacy.”
Currently on view at the Mint Museum Randolph, in Charlotte, Art of Devotion: The Santos de Palo Tradition of Puerto Rico features more than 150 examples of these sacred carvings. Guest curator Dorie Reents-Budet, PhD, organized the exhibition, which draws exclusively from the collection of Nitza Mediavilla Piñero and Francisco Toste Santana, recent transplants to Charlotte from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It will be on view until July 5, 2026.
The Mint Museum is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.