The Cerro María Lionza Natural Monument (also known as Sorte mountain) where an important pilgrimage takes place every October, was renamed in her honour.

[4] In 2011, Wade Glenn, an anthropologist from Tulane University in the United States, estimated that about 60% of the Venezuelan population may have participated in the cult of María Lionza at some point.

[1][6] Some analysts argue that the decline of the power of the Catholic Church during Chávez's reign, along with the crisis in Venezuela, may have led many Venezuelans to join the cult to seek help.

According to the cult, María Lionza is one of the main "three powers" (Spanish: Tres Potencias), which also include Guaicaipuro, a legendary indigenous resistance leader of 16th century, and Negro Felipe,[a] a black Afro-American soldier that allegedly participated in the Venezuelan War of Independence.

[3] The lower spirits, usually referred to as brothers (Spanish: hermanos) by the pilgrims, are arranged into 'courts', divided by identity: Indigenous, African, Viking, Liberator.

The shamans act as mediums between the pilgrims and the spirits, and usually demand that the devotees enter into trance states, which often lead them to speak in tongues or harm themselves.

[3][12] Various sources have reported sightings of shamans, sometimes wearing horned helmets, claiming to have contacted the legendary Viking Eric the Red, the first Norse explorer to discover Greenland.

[5] One of the most iconic portrayals of María Lionza is the 1951 monument in the Francisco Fajardo Highway in Caracas by Venezuelan sculptor Alejandro Colina.

[15] The statue was moved to the highway in 1953,[16] after the university and Pérez Jiménez became concerned that the accessible campus location would allow María Lionza's devotees to gather and to spread their devotion in Venezuela.

In October 2022, the statue was extracted without permission from the authorities and traveled from the warehouse to the Sorte mountain some days before the beginning of the yearly pilgrimage.

[18] Rubén Blades and Willie Colón's salsa song "María Lionza", from their 1978 album Siembra, is dedicated to the Venezuelan deity.