For those who persist in wanting to bury a St. Joseph’s statue why not go for the Jack Bauer and St. Joseph Kit.
Before attempting this to sell your house …
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"It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it." GKC
17 comments
Dean,
Non Catholics buying St. Joseph statues are just as prevalent as Catholics. While in our local Catholic book store you can see em a mile away, they all look like lightening is going to strike them at any moment. I guess this fear is born of a innate protestant suspicion of Catholicism, or they themselves know that this is superstition and its wrong.
Why is the custom of burying St. Joseph prevalent in America?
Amen!~ anyone who asks me to procure plastic St. Joseph statues for the purpose of advancing their real estate careers will always get a ear full from me, especially Catholics, and no they won’t like what I have to say. I have little patience for what in my mind amounts to voodoo.
Poor St. Joseph
Fr. Pecoraro,
Do you get non-Catholics trying to do this?
This is a practice I find disturbing.
I’ve heard that actualy no-one’s sure which way to bury poor old St. Joe, upside down? sideways? facing the house or away from the house? North, south, what? For a persistent superstition, no one can get it right.
When I was trying to sell my house last fall, I used to carry my little plastic St. Joe around in my pocket. One Sunday after Mass I met an elderly lady who asked for prayers for the sale of her son’s home in New Orleans. So I gave her my statue for him. My house immediately sold!
Good grief, I thought it was only in the Philippines that statues of St. Joseph are buried upside down. How barbaric and disrespectful. I do pray to St. Joseph to get good tenants, but I just place his statue on a table.
I heard that the practice comes from St. Theresa of Avila who is said to have buried a St. Joseph medal on the site where she wanted to establish a new foundation. Is it true?
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I did it 10 years ago and my house sold immediately. I have apologized to St. Joseph. I wasn’t Catholic then.
Great cartoon!
What may have started as a devotion with the medals has definitely turned into a massive superstition. I’ve seen St. Joseph statues being sold with incense for “house purifation”. I just pray that anyone who does the practice is pulled into the Church by St. Joseph’s intervention. It would serve them right. 🙂
Fr. Pecoraro,
Thanks for the response.
I don’t know if St Teresa of Avila buried medals, but I know that St Frances Xavier Cabrini buried medals of St Joseph when she desired a property. Or when she had land disputes with neighbors, she would bury a medal on the disputed area. Her idea was that these things are St Joseph’s ‘problem’ now, not hers; she had to be busy doing other work and couldn’t be bothered worrying over it. It was a kind of surrender to the Saint’s kind management of his foster Son’s property.
My family and I are house hunting, and going to try to buy our first home at an estate auction on March 21 (we’ve been looking for a house for a year now and haven’t found one that is large enough or one we can afford on one income. We home school, and have 8 children, living in a small rental.) The house we will bid on tomorrow is the first ‘perfect’ one that both my husband and I have agreed upon. Anyway, tomorrow (Wed) at 5 pm EST, we’ll have our St Joseph medals in our pockets, and hope to come away with a reasonably priced, large enough home.
If the house isn’t meant to be ours, may St Joseph’s loving prayers be with us to accept God’s Holy Will. We’ve been praying to St Joseph all this time for his help, and I’m confident he will find the house that will be best suited to our needs and our finances. He’s already miraculously provided our downpayment through many incredible, and sometimes completely anonymous, gifts; we just have to find the house meant for us.
PS: Any prayers you add will be greatly appreciated!
I also get my share of folks, Catholic and non, wanting me to bless their statues for burial. I tell them I will bless it only if they dont bury it and instead say prayers to St. Joseph for a successful home sale. If in Confession, they tell me they have done this (I have mentioned it as a sin in a homily), I give them the same penance I give to people who leave the St. Jude chain letters in the back of the church: prayers, lots and lots of prayers!
I wonder if there’s a market for biodegradable St. Joseph statues.
I’ve sold two houses, and St. Joseph went down in the dirt prior to the sale of each. I didn’t bury him face down, as a local priest told me that didn’t matter. But, when the houses sold, I dug the statue back up and it resides on a shelf in my kitchen. Sure, it’s a bit odd to bury a statue of the saint for real estate transactions, but I don’t see what the problem is with the practice, really. Indeed, but for the house sales I would never have considered getting a statue of St.J. Having the statue in the house makes me mindful of St.Joseph, and serves as a reminder to pray to him, too. If you think burying St.Joseph statues to sell real estate is weird, you should check out some of the other things I’ve heard devout Catholics recommend — like putting a statue of the Infant of Prague on the front porch to ward off rain.
Hi: I am trying to sell my home with little luck and have heard MANY people tell me of burying saint joseph. Can anyone help me with a good place to find his statue? I have looked at a few christian stores in my area with no luck. Is there another place that may carry them. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! -JB
I am trying desperately to sell my house, so I can move to Florida and purchase another home there. I have had my home here on the market for over 4 months now. I have lowered the price and made offers to pay closing or give other real estate sellers a bonus. So far nothing. I will try purchasing a St. Joseph and burying it if it will help get this house sold.
Neo-pagans assure me that it works whether you believe in it or not.