Rada Loa

The Rada Loa were a group of deities in Haitian vodoun identified by Eugene Petion as "good spirits". They were associated with saints as a means to show respect for the official state religion, the Catholic Church, without compromising any of the worshippers traditional beliefs. (PROSE: White Darkness)

In 18th century Saint-Dominigue, revolutionaries that followed Mackandal took much of the Catholic Church's mythology and continued to honour their saints while practising other rituals. Émondeur's followers were communing with the saints on a Sunday when a babewyn appeared. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)

In 1915 Haiti, when followers of the Petro gods were creating numerous zombies, the Seventh Doctor asked to be put in contact with a priest of the Rada Loa. The priest, Clairvius Dubois, owned a painting of Saint Patrick. (PROSE: White Darkness)

Hermes indicated it was a group of Immortals that acted as gods in Haiti. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion)

Behind the scenes

• David A. McIntee's distinction of good and evil is not one used by most vodouisants. The Rada and Petro rites are both used together and there aren't separate priests. Petion even notes that Dubois was only known to have served the Rada Loa. Dubois is as much a sorcerer as Gilles Lemaitre because he also produces zombies.
• The Rada, unlike the Petro, are African gods. In the narrowest sense, they are the gods of Dahomey's Efik which means they would have been the gods Lemaitre worshipped in his youth. "St. Patrick" corresponds to the "Da" in Dahomey. In the broadest sense where Rada is defined as all African gods worshipped in Haiti, it would also include the Nago Loa, such as the Yoruba deity Shango. (PROSE: Transit, Christmas on a Rational Planet)
• Lawrence Miles makes no distinction between the "cool" Rada and "hot" Petro, even though the Petro are the ones associated with the violence of the revolution. In Adventuress he only defines Mackandal and associates as a terrorist witch-cult. Miles previously explicitly connected Mackandal to "vodan" and the loa in the Faction Paradox comic books and Haiti's "voodoo" to the revolt of slaves in PROSE: Interference - Book One.