Based on Roman Catholic tradition, the Anima Sola or lonely soul is an image, in some interpretations seen as that of a soul in purgatory, popular in Latin America.

Various interpretations of the image

The Anima Sola is taken to represent a soul suffering in purgatory, usually, if not always, a woman. The woman has broken free from her chains in the midst of a prison (barred doors) and is surrounded by flames, representing purgatory. She appears penitent and reverent, and her chains have been broken, an indication that, after her temporary suffering, she is destined for heaven.

Anima Sola is also celebrated in folk religions much as a saint - and she hears the prayers of the living. She may bless and intercede on the prayer's behalf to accelerate the conclusion of a purgatorial penance of a loved one who died in sin. She might also be called up on to create a living purgatory for someone who has hurt the person praying to her.

The Anima Sola is "a belief still deeply rooted in the mass of the campesinos. The devotion dates from the first colonizers, who probably brought the image in which the soul is represented as a woman suffering torments in purgatory with chains binding her hands. A legend concerning the 'thirst of Christ', about which Scripture seems to say nothing, passes from mouth to mouth: They say that in Jerusalem there were women who gave drink to those who were being crucified. On the afternoon of Good Friday it fell to a young woman, Celestina Abdenago, to go up Calvary. From a jar she gave a drink to Dismas and Gestas, yet she despised the Saviour; and for that reason, he condemned her to suffer thirst and the constant heat of purgatory."